Second Time
by Kage of Seireitei
Summary: Aizen has gained ultimate power and is on his final attack on Soul Society. Ichigo and Soul Society make a last stand. Aizen wins but the survivors Ichigo and Orihime, are given a chance to fix everything, a second time. IchigoxOrihime. Major spoilers.
1. War Torn Life

**Second Time**

(A/N: Yo! This is my first fanfic. Please be nice. I the humble author will try not to bore you or make you wait for updates too long. You, Reader-sama, will hopefully enjoy this work of literature. Thank you for taking time to read my fanfic.)

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach. If I did, Orihime and Ichigo would have been a couple ever since Orihime admitted her love for Ichigo.

Spoiler Warning

**Chapter 1: War-torn Life**

First Person POV

My Name is Kurosaki Ichigo and I am a shinigami. A shinigami is responsible for the purifying of hollows and the burial of souls. This is to keep balance in both the real world and soul society. I am no ordinary shinigami. I am also human, as in I have a living body and can travel between Soul Society and the Real world at will.

I am 25 years old and I have been a shinigami for 10 years. I acquired these powers when my family was attacked all those years ago and there was nothing I could do to save them. That is until I met this shinigami named Kuchiki Rukia who let me borrow her powers to destroy the hollow that was attacking my family.

After the attack I spent my spare time hunting and purifying hollows using my zanpaktou. Things were going great until two people from soul society came and took Rukia back because she was to be executed for giving her powers to a human. That night I lost my powers and was going to die until I was saved by Urahara Kisuke.

I had planned to go to soul society and save Rukia as a thank you for saving my family. I trained under Urahara for ten days straight without break. I unlocked my own shinigami powers and found out the name of my zanpaktou, Zangetsu. Then on the 10th day, I left for soul society. With the help of Ishida the last quincy, Chad the juggernaut, Inoue Orihime, Yoruichi, Ganju, and later Yamada, we had saved Rukia.

It turns out that Room 46, the shinigamis in charge of all activity in soul society including Rukia's execution, were murdered long before the execution, and captain Aizen along with captain Tousen, and captain Ichimaru Gin had secretly been acting as Room 46 and feeding false information throughout soul society. They had moved up Rukia's execution date several times. The reason for this is because Rukia held within her a most powerful weapon, the Hougyoku. This device played a major role in captain Aizen's ambition.

Captain Aizen and his underlings Tousen and Gin had betrayed soul society and took the Hougyoku and fled soul society. Aizen's plan was to use the Hougyoku to create Arrancars, which are Hollows that have developed shinigami powers and have zanpaktous. He would use these Arrancars to further his plans. It was later revealed that when the Hougyoku's full power was unlocked, Aizen would use it to go to the dimension of the king of creation. Soul Society and Room 46 were left to operate by themselves under the rule of the king. If Aizen were able to go to that dimension, he would assassinate the king and become the king.

Soon after my trip to Soul society, I had been contacted by Hirako who was a Vizard. Vizards are shinigami that have gained hollow powers by defeating their inner hollows. Their attack strength increases a hundred fold and they are able to use hollow attacks like cero. I at first rejected their offer of joining them but soon after when me and my friends were attacked, I knew I had to get stronger to protect them. I trained with the Vizards for the upcoming war and I learned how to control my inner hollow.

The arrancars attacked again and me and my friends were able to hold them off. I later learned that it was all a diversion for the real plan which was the kidnap of Orihime. Orihime's power is the power of event rejection. She used this power before to heal all types of injuries. It was later when she realized that she could somewhat control space and time, however it was limited. Aizen sought to use this power to restore the hogyoku to full power allowing him to use it for his plans. When I heard that they had captured Orihime, my friends and I immediately gave chase and went to Hueco Mundo which Aizen was based in Las Noches. Ishida with his new Quincy powers, Chad with his new attack and defend powers, me and my new hollow powers, and with the help of the hollow Nelly and her friends, we were able to save Orihime and barely escape with our lives.

Without Orihime, Aizen had to wait in order for the Hogyoku to regain full power. It would take him several years to prepare the Hogyoku manually. However he still created arrancars and used them along with the hollows to start a war.

A few months after Orihime's kidnap, arrancars and menos were starting to appear again in the real world. They started to attack and destroy everything in sight. It was complete chaos. The first wave alone, wiped out millions of people across the planet. My friends and I had received some help from soul society in defending against the attacks. But we were highly outnumbered.

My friends and family along with myself were forced to retreat to soul society. It was then when I learned that my father was a former captain shinigami. However during the retreat, Urahara Kisuke, my father, and Ishida's father former Quincy master, had sacrificed themselves by fighting an entire army of arrancar, hollow, and menos, just to let the rest of us safely through to soul society.

I was left to take care of my family being the eldest Kurosaki. I grew up fast after that. For the next several years me and my friends trained and trained and trained till we had perfected our respective powers. We got help from the Vizards, as well as the Gotei 13. We had become strong and had actively participated in the war. We were officially enlisted into the Gotei 13.

I have been fighting in this war ever since then. Now as I stand here I realize it is my responsibility as Captain-Commander, to lead Soul Society into the final leg of the war.

chuckles

In my whole life I had never dreamed of becoming Captain-Commander of Soul Society. But, just a year ago, Aizen's forces had been inching closer to the center of Soul Society. They had actually managed to break through the gates and took control of part of Seireitei. I was on a mission in the real world at the time but when I returned I learned that the former captain commander Yamamoto along with most of the captains who had not perished in the war had sacrificed themselves and had defeated former captains Tousen and Gin along with more then half of the enemy forces in order to save soul society.

I was then offered the position of captain-commander and was told that the now deceased Yamamoto had known that I had power greater than his own and was to be the next captain-commander if he were to die. I accepted the position with honor and in memory of Yamamoto Genryuusai. My friends had also replaced the lost captains.

Ever since then we had been defending Soul Society but knew we were fighting a loosing battle. A few days ago Aizen's forces had broken through the gates again and we knew it was coming down to the final fight.

(A/N: This completes the first chapter of Second Time. Please review. If you do I will update with even better quality chapters. The more reviews the better story. Thank you Reader-sama)


	2. Approaching the End

**Second Time**

**By**

**Kage of Seireitei**

(A/N: Sorry for the long wait reader-sama. There were many things that happened to me that prevented me from updating. First, my laptop was stolen and it had all of my schoolwork, fanfictions, and the chapters to my fanfictions of which I was gonna use to update. It wasn't insured for theft so I had to wait a while before I could get a new one. Now that I have another laptop, I had to redo the structure of my fanfic and tweak it a bit. Not only that, but I had to miss a week of school for the state science fair. I got in and unfortunately got only recognition for my fantastic project that made it to states. The title should have been enough to advance : _Morphological Evolution of Galaxies in Nine Abell Clusters as a Function of Time as Measured by Spectral Red Shifting Techniques_ But noooo, apparently they didn't believe my conclusion was justified enough. Ahhhhh! Must stop ranting. Anyways since I missed a week of school, I also had to make up all that work and missed tests. And I also have big projects, 7 AP and IB exams, not to mention final exams for all my classes coming up in the next month! Ahhhhhh! It will be amazing if I could ever find time to update my fanfics. But I try my best for you Reader-sama. Now as I sit here in my IB Chemistry class, retyping my fanfic, I only hope that you will review, because nice reviews and helpful review will give me the energy to get through these troubled times and make it out in the end. Also if I get good reviews, I will update more often.)

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach and I'm sad to say that I don't own anything except for this story. –Sigh-

**Chapter 2: Approaching The End**

(A few miles outside Seireitei)

In the midst of a great battle, Arrancars, Hollows of varying class, Espada, versus the remaining shinigami forces ranging from academy students to vice captain and the remaining captain level shinigami. The battle was obviously one-sided.

The academy students were only on par with the normal level hollows, so when one encountered anything higher they were completely destroyed. The Gillian were so massive in numbers. They stampeded through entire armies and used powerful Cero blasts killing those who were not experienced enough to dodge the attack.

Only anyone of vice-captain level or above could handle the Gillian and Adjuchas. But when it came down to the Espada, the arrancar elite, they were slowly eliminated due to the sheer numbers they were facing.

"Ahhhhhhh" a voice cried out as he let out a powerful wave of reiatsu immediately killing several Gillians that were wreaking havoc.

"Getsuga Teshou! (sp?)" the same voice cried out ripping apart several advancing high class hollows and Gillian. The voice belonged to none other than the Captain-commander, Ichigo Kurosaki.

"Hey! The captain-commander is here! We might have a chance!" a shinigami soldier cried out to anyone who could hear over the destruction.

He was so busy cheering he didn't notice an Adjuchas creeping up behind him. Just as the mid-level arrancar was about to lob off the shinigami's head, an arrow of pure spirit energy came rushing and impaled the center of the arrancar's face, immediately destroying it.

"Keep your attention on the battlefield!" the archer yelled at the man whose life he just saved. The archer was the last remaining Quincy Uryuu Ishida.

As the battle raged on a dark dimensional opening appeared in the sky. It was larger than anything and everyone could see that there were reinforcements of Gillian just beyond that darkness.

"If that rift fully opens, all hell will break loose and we'll lose because the sheer difference in numbers. We have to close it!" Ichigo commanded to a few unnamed third seating officers.

"Hai Kurosaki-sama!" they responded as they flash stepped away to try and take care of the problem.

_This is getting way out of hand! We need to end this battle before nightfall! I need someone to plow through their forces and create a pathway for me to get to Aizen. Then I need someone with great agility in order to maneuver through the quickest path to Aizen. If I can just kill him then the battle should halt or at least slow down significantly. Yeah right! Like its as easy as that. _Ichigo thought sarcastically but he knew it was the only chance.

Ichigo was right now locked in the middle of a duel with two Espada members: Noitora and Grimmjaw. Both were the most bloodthirsty and vicious fighters out of Espada. Ichigo had to use more than half of his hallow power to fight on par with them.

The captain-commander was busy dodging continuous cero blasts from Grimmjaw and the occasional swing of Noitora's doubled-crescent axe. The strength in their attacks was incredible. Every single time Ichigo's blade matched their own the ground would shake destructively like a major earthquake. The reiatsu they were releasing was enough to incinerate the ground they were standing on.

_This battle is going nowhere. I need a way out! _Ichigo thought as he deflected a cero blast. _Grimmjaw came up under him_ while Noitora was above him ready to split Ichigo in half.

"Slicing Moon Defense!" Ichigo shouted as he started to rotate his body rapidly. He fully extended his zanpaktou and released reiatsu at the end of it. The black energy formed a protective dome that protected Ichigo from the oncoming attacks.

Grimmjaw and Noitora collided with the protective dome and were deflected back. When Ichigo stopped his rotation, he called out his next attack.

"Slicing Moon Tracker!" He slashed his zanpaktou twice in thin air creating two crescent shaped black reiatsu beams that each went straight for the two espada. Grimmjaw dodged the one headed for him while Noitora deflected the attack with his axe. They both smirked in triumph.

"Do you think an attack like that would work on us?" Grimmjaw taunted.

When they saw Ichigo smirk they turned around and saw that the attacks were headed back for them. Their eyes widened in fear as they tried to dodge again and barely managed to, although part of their robes were slashed. The crescents made a turn around and the two espada continued to dodge. Then they started firing cero blasts but they had no effect on the tracking attack.

_This attack is very advanced. It must have taken a lot of reiatsu to perform it. That leaves Ichigo wide open! _Grimmjaw thought as he headed for his new target.

Ichigo saw Grimmjaw approaching from the corner of his eye and moved to intercept the espada. Ichigo flipped his black zanpaktou so the blade was pointing down.

"Cutting Moon Restraint!" Ichigo shouted as he pierced the black blade into the ground. The force was so great that the ground shattered leaving giant fissures that spread out in every direction. Out of those fissures seeped black reiatsu.

Grimmjaw paid no attention to it and was about to fire a cero at point blank when he noticed that he stopped moving. The seis espada looked down and was shocked to see that the black reiatsu from earlier now was acting like a sticky substance and wrapped around his leg. It then crept up his body as several more streams of black reiatsu shot out from the pool at his feet and tied his arms down.

_What the hell is this stuff? _Grimmjaw thought.

"Its my own reiatsu but in a sticky liquid form. You can't escape" Ichigo answered his thoughts.

When Grimmjaw was fully restrained, he noticed Ichigo moving out of the way of something.

_Wait a second!_

Grimmjaw's eyes widened as he remembered the tracking slice attack. He struggled to look behind him just in time to see the attack cleave him in two. Grimmjaw dropped dead.

Ichigo called back his reiatsu as he looked around for Noitora. He found the espada member still struggling with the tracker attack.

_No matter how many times I hit this thing it keeps coming back! _Noitora thought in frustration.

He jumped high in the air. Soon after the crescent turned sharply and followed him.

"As you may have guessed that attack is designed to lock onto a specific reiatsu signature and keep following it until it reaches its target" Ichigo explained.

Noitora growled as he maneuvered his long sleek body out of the way. It seemed as if he was made of rubber, bending and stretching in an unnatural fashion.

"Ha! Your attack can't touch me!" Noitora declared as he continued to dodge.

"Sorry but I need to go now" Ichigo said calmly as he went full vizard power, with the entire hollow mask covering his face.

"Slicing moon….." Ichigo began as he charged his black zanpaktou.

Noitora saw this and made a dive toward the defenseless Ichigo. The espada brought his gargantuan axe back and started to swing horizontally.

Ichigo smirked behind his mask as he brought his zanpaktou in front of him once again and finished charging his attack.

"…..cero blast combination!" Ichigo cried out as a massive amount of deathly black energy erupted from the end of the blade disintegrating the descending espada and weapon.

Ichigo pulled off his hollow mask and was seen panting heavily.

_No! I used to much reiatsu! _Ichigo thought He looked up and saw that the dimensional tear was almost fully opened.

_I gotta hurry and go! _Ichigo resolved as he tried to hide his exhaustion and make his way to the center of the raging battlefield.

A few minutes later and he made his way to what looked like shinigami held territory. He concluded that he was a few miles behind the front line. Ichigo looked and saw piles of injured shinigami and even more dead bodies. Ichigo knew they were fighting a losing battle. He just wondered why these shinigami fought under his command. He didn't think he really had the full trust of his army. Even though he was a Captain-Commander chosen by Yamamoto himself, he wasn't sure the shinigami accepted him as their leader. Ichigo thought about what happened the last time he thought this.

Flashback:

Ichigo was standing over the tall cliff at the execution ground. He had the perfect view of all of soul society and he always went there to think. Today was the first day he lead troops into battle. He felt sorry for those who died under his command.

…_..because of my mistakes. _Ichigo pondered.

Ichigo sensed someone was watching him. He turned around and saw a beautiful orange-haired woman dressed in the formal black and white captains robes of the 4th division.

"A penny for your thoughts?" she asked in a nurturing voice with an innocent smile on her face that made Ichigo's heart flutter.

Ichigo sook his head of those thoughts. Now was not the time to be thinking about that.

"I know why you're like this. You obviously doubt your ability to lead Soul Society to victory" she accused but not in a harsh tone just in a knowing one.

When Ichigo remained silent, she continued "You also don't think that you deserve the title of Captain-commander."

Ichigo looked as if he was lost in thought. He then came out and asked "It's that easy to see, huh?"

The woman smiled kindly and walked over to the first division captain and enveloped him in a hug which he hesitated to return.

She rested her head on his chest. With her eyes closed, she seemed content and peaceful.

"Ichigo, Yamamoto-jiji choose you for a reason. Not only because of your strength, but also because you possess a special power."

Ichigo looked down at the woman in his arms questioningly. She looked up and giggled a little at his bemused expression. "You have the power to make people believe in their own power. When Rukia was taken back to Soul Society, you believed there was a way to save her. You also have the uncanny ability to lead people to victory. Everyone who went with you had believed in your cause and fought to save someone they barely even knew."

Ichigo pondered over this and let the woman continue. "Do you remember what we learned after the Bounto attacked? That you Ichigo are special. We all learned that you had the greatest responsibility out of all of us. You were not dead, but at the same time, a shinigami. You had the problems of both worlds hanging on your shoulders. You still endured all kinds of hardships and proved yourself worthy of being a shinigami several times. Yamamoto-jiji saw this strength within you and so did everybody else. The reason the shinigami follow you into battle is because they believe you to be an excellent leader and they wouldn't trust anyone else with their lives other than you went sent in the midst of battle. They respect and love you. I hope you can see that" she finished. The woman noticed that a few tears were cascading down Ichigo's face and she looked directly up into his loving eyes.

Ichigo was now smiling happily and in understanding of his position. He wiped away his tears before saying "You always know what to say. I don't know where I'd be without you. I love you Orihime."

Ichigo bent down and claimed the woman's lips with his own. All of their tension and problems seemed to wash away with that one kiss and they decided to savor the moment.

When they separated Orihime looked back into his eyes and whispered back

"I love you too Ichigo."

(A/N: Well there goes chapter two. The final showdown is coming up. Don't miss it. Remember that more reviews means better story quality. Please review. And if you are waiting for the next chapter be sure to check out my other fanfics. Thank you Reader-sama for your time. Goodbye.)


	3. The End?

**Second Time**

**By**

**Kage of Seireitei**

(A/N: Yo! I'm sorry this chapter took so long. But I had to work on the fight scenes a bit and adjust a few things in my storyline. However this story will still be a time travel fic so no worries. I think Reader-sama will be pleased. The 'final' battle will take place here. But don't let it full you, there is plenty more where that came from. Read and Enjoy…………and review.)

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach anime or manga. I don't own a lot of things including IBM, Indonesia, Incubators, Iching Powder, etc.

Speech/Narration

_Thoughts/Dreams_

**Chapter 3: The End?**

"Yamada-fukataichou, we have more shinigami injured in sector D!" a shinigami soldier reported.

"I'll be there as soon as I can" the recently placed 4th division Vice-captain responded.

The front lines may be chaotic, but back here it was just as bad. Injured shinigami keep flooding the makeshift hospitals. The entire 4th division is struggling to heal everyone……..and bury all the dead.

Yamada Hanatarou (sp?) was busy at work commanding the 4th division as his captain was out on the front lines.

"Hanatarou report!" the captain-commander's voice, Ichigo's, sounded through the bustling halls of the 4th division hospital.

"Hai Kurosaki-sama! Sectors A, C, and E are under heavy fire. We're getting several reports of Espada ripping through the troops stationed there. I also am sad to report that we are getting more dead shinigami than injured. It seems we are falling behind the enemy."

Ichigo nodded gravely as he tried to form a plan. "Ichigo" Hanatarou spoke, breaking the silence using the tone of a friend rather than a subordinate. "This doesn't look good. Our troops are vastly outnumbered and outclassed. It seems like we're going to……….."

Ichigo looked at his friend sternly.

"………….we're going to lose this one."

"I understand if you don't want to do this anymore Hanatarou-" Ichigo began but was cut off when Hanatarou shouted

"ICHIGO! I will always fight by your side no matter what the odds! I trust your leadership and your decisions. Don't ever think I will abandon soul society especially when they need me the most" Hanatarou said without faltering.

Ichigo was momentarily surprised at the outburst but smiled kindly. "Great. Then I'll leave the Hospital in your capable hands" Ichigo said as he started to leave.

"Oh one more thing! Have you seen Orihime around?" Ichigo asked.

"She left here a while ago. She was headed for the front lines" Hanatarou informed. A split second after he finished, Ichigo flash stepped away as fast as he could to the center of hell,

The battlefront.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Ichigo was racing through Seireitei at lightning speed, leaving scorch marks on the ground where he stepped.

_Orihime I told you to stay at the hospital! _Ichigo thought angrily at the fact that his love might be in danger. But deep down he knew Orihime would rather be out there helping her friends. Instead of being cooped up in a hospital.

Ichigo was brought out of his musings as he heard several thousand loud hollow yells coming from somewhere up in the sky. He looked up and saw the gigantic crack in the sky.

_What the Hell! Its opening at a faster rate. I've got to seal it now! _Ichigo picked up his speed.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Ichigo reached the battlefield and was practically absentmindedly taking care of a few hollows that came his way.

Ichigo looked up and could see the shadowy outlines of an entire army of Gillian just behind that crack in dimensions. The millions of blood red eyes glowing menacingly.

_If that opens its game over._

Ichigo looked to the side and saw about a hundred yards away, a woman fighting off a large group of hollows.

The woman was garbed in the blood-stained robes of the captain of the 4th division. She was carrying a large triangular shaped shield and red-black sword. A big pair of wings extended from her back. They were not natural wings. It developed as an advanced form of her powers. She was also wearing a pink glove on her right hand and a yellow glove on her left hand.

Orihime was the one fighting off the hollows.

Tsubaki was her sword and wings, Baigon, Hinagiku, and Lily were her shield, and Ayame was the pink glove and Shun'o was her yellow glove.

"Hyah!" Orihime flew fast and sliced apart her opponents who fell past.

The hollows disintegrated and a few who were watching retreated.

"Orihime!" Ichigo called out. Orihime turned around quickly and sheathed her sword and attached her shield to her back. Ichigo flash stepped all the way over.

"Ichi-kun you're hurt" Orihime pointed out. Ichigo had ignored his injuries the whole way for he was worried about Orihime. Now that he reached her, his body caught up with him as he fell to the ground in exhaustion.

"Ayame, Shun'o, I reject" Orihime commanded when she put both her gloved hands on the laying Ichigo. The gloves glowed brightly and suddenly the wound started to disappear as if it never existed, which of course was her power of event rejection.

Ichigo groggily got up and faced the 4th division captain. "Orihime, we have a problem" he said pointing to the gaping dimensional hole.

"If that thing opens we will be overrun by an uncountable number of menos" Ichigo explained.

"I need your help in getting there" Ichigo said. Orihime smiled and shouted "Tsubaki, Winged Platform!"

The wings on her back detached themselves and combined. Then they doubled in size and laid floating horizontally on the ground. "Let's go Ichi-kun" she said as she hopped on the flying board. Ichigo hopped on as well and used reiatsu to stick to the board.

Suddenly, they shot off like a rocket. The speed would have been enough to leave Yoruichi, goddess of flash, in the dust. The alternate form of Tsubaki weaved in and out of attacking hollow groups with incredible agility.

Ichigo, even though he was a captain-commander, was struggling to stay on the board. He noticed Orihime was smiling happily and enjoying herself as if she were on an amusement park ride.

They just barely missed colliding into a group of Adjuchas class arrancars. Ichigo looked back to see a group of shinigami about to be ambushed by those arrancar. He was going to jump off the board when out of nowhere, a massive blast of reiatsu came barreling from the tree canopies and struck the offending force, disintegrating the hollows.

Ichigo smiled to himself when he saw that it was Chad who fired the blast of energy as he appeared to give commands to those shinigami.

Ichigo and Orihime continued to zip away.

(Elsewhere)

Ishida looked up into the sky and saw a streak of red and black zooming towards the gaping hole.

"Kurosaki, Inoue" he whispered to himself. A second later he disappeared in a Quincy flash step.

(At the gaping dimension hole)

_**GRAHHHHHHHH!!!**_ The menos roared from behind crack in the sky.

"We need to seal this now!" Ichigo yelled over the roar of the wind in their ears. Orihime nodded in response and brought the glider closer to the ground and stopped. They jumped off and tried to take out any opposing hollows in the area.

"Cutting Moon: Serpent's blast!" Ichigo yelled as he swung his black bankai sword. A massive black snake made up of Ichigo's reiatsu was formed and charged through the gathered hollows ripping them to shreds.

Orihime reattached her wings and soared through the enemy platoon. "Ayame, Shun'o…..!" the orange haired girl chanted opening both her palms at the enemy. A glow appeared blanketing the cluster of hollows. "I reject!" the glow brightened and engulfed the evil spirits. When the glow died down, all of the hollows were gone, their existence rejected.

"Orihime, quickly use your rejection power to seal the crack!" Ichigo yelled over the chaos.

"Hai Ichi-kun!" Orihime did the same maneuver and tried to eliminate the crack.

"I don't have enough reiatsu left over to close it up!" she yelled back as the glow only covered about half the hole.

_**GRRRRAAAAAHHHHH!!!**_

"I………can't………hold…….it" she panted forcing all of her reiatsu to the surface.

"I'm coming! Hold on!" Ichigo screamed quickly eliminating the remaining hollows in the area. He flash stepped over to Orihime and pointed his sword to the bright glow covering half the opening.

"Cutting Moon: Crescent Seal!" Ichigo shouted. More black spirit energy erupted from the end of the bankai evolution zanpaktou. It formed a crescent shaped seal (obviously) and covered the half opening.

"Okay now Orihime!"

"Ayame……..Shun'o…….I reject" she commanded using the remaining of her reiastu. The glow intensified and started to absorb the crack in dimensions.

"You will not succeed!" a voice demanded, firing a cero blast at the defenseless 4th division captain.

"Cutting Moon: Defense!" Ichigo called out, performing a spinning move (similar to Neji's Kaiten in Naruto) and releasing reiatsu creating a barrier. The cero blast deflected off.

The attacker revealed himself to be the cuatro espada.

Ulquiorra (sp?)

The last espada member. The top three were killed during the big invasion where all the captains sacrificed themselves. And the rest of the espada were either killed today or on that same day.

"It is futile Ichigo. You can't beat the power of Aizen and the Hougyoku." The last Espada said.

_I can't do anything now. I have almost no reiatsu and Orihime is busy sealing the crack. _Ichigo thought.

"You think you can beat me? I beat both Noitorra and Grimmjaw at the same time and I'm not even tired" Ichigo said.

"I'm the cuatro espada. Noitorra was cinco espada (made that up) and Grimmjaw was the seis espada. I'm several times stronger than them. Besides I know you are extremely low on reiatsu" Ulquiorra said seeing right through Ichigo's bluff.

_I need some time. _Ichigo hoped something would happen.

Suddenly an arrow came wizzing by directly at Ulquiorra who dodged it rather effortlessly and slightly.

Ishida flash stepped in between Ulquiorra and Ichigo. "On behave of the Quincy, I will defeat you!" Ulquiorra remained emotionless.

Ichigo watched intensely when both his friend and enemy entered the flash step universe. Striking at each other intensely. Ishida pulled out his Steele Schieder which doubles as a sword and arrow and swung at Ulquiorra who then drew his zanpaktou and matched him.

Ichigo was trying to regain his strength while Orihime was still trying to seal the crack.

Ishida then drew his pentacle shaped cross and fired a volley of arrows at his elusive opponent. Ulquiorra then flash stepped behind Ishida and swung his sword horizontally thinking he got the Quincy. But was surprised to see that he only struck an after image. He quickly looked up and saw Ishida in the air bow string pulled back and arrows aimed down at him.

"DIE!" Ishida yelled frustrated. He fired all 1,200 consecutive arrow shots at once. The massive collection of spirit energy blasting Ulquiorra into the ground. The explosion was immense and the flash was intense. Ichigo had to shield his eyes and body from the flying debris.

When the dust cleared Ichigo saw a lone figure standing in the middle of a giant crater.

"Ishida!" Ichigo cried out as he saw his 'friend' was alright. He was about to run over to him when he was frozen to the spot by a spike in spirit energy. Ishida turned around quickly and was shocked to see

Ulquiorra

Standing calm. Although his robes were torn and his skin was still smoking from some of the more direct hits, his facial expression held no pain.

"Is that all? How unfortunate for you." He stabbed his zanpaktou straight into the shocked Ishida's chest. He withdrew his sword from the body and threw Ishida all the way to Ichigo's feet.

"Kuro…….saki…..please……….defeat…….him……for….me" Ishida pleaded as he closed his eyes and

Died.

Ichigo was too stunned to even breath. One of his closest friends had just died right in front of him. His life ended by the cuatro espada. Ishida, 12th division captain, comrade, and friend.

Something deep inside Ichigo stirred.

"AHHHHHHH!!!!!" Ichigo screamed as a massive amount of reiatsu was released out of his soul. The power kept increasing exponentially.

_What is this power? _Ulquiorra wondered.

"**You will die!!" **Ichigo said in a demonic voice. He rapidly flash stepped and appeared next to the stunned Ulquiorra who put his sword up in defense and was about to strike back. Ichigo disappeared at the last second and appeared right behind the arrancar.

_He's fast! _The cuatro espada thought quickly.

"**HYAHHH!" **Ichigo yelled slicing into his opponent cutting him in half.

Only to step back in shock as Ulquiorra reattached himself. A sick cracking of a few bones and the last espada stood straight as if the attack didn't phase him.

"What I forgot to mention to you Kurosaki is that I'm only know to be the cuatro espada in my current form." The arrancar started to morph. Two large deathly black wings sprouted from his back. Its edges turned into razor sharp blades. His fingers and hands changed into claws. His hair turned pale white and his eyes turned demonic red. A length of black colored reiatsu shot out and wrapped the bottom half of his face leaving only his eyes to view. And to top it all off his body started to radiate an intense amount of heat. It kept building up until his entire form was surrounded in an aura of fire.

"But, in my true form. I am the Ultimate Espada!" He flapped his wings and took off at a terrifying speed. The air around his body was blasted with lightning from the intense heat and speed given off.

The slightly demonic Ichigo performed a quick Cutting Moon: Defense but that was instantly shattered. Ichigo was struck fiercely by the powerful attack.

Ichigo was sent flying into the air but the strongest espada wasn't done yet. The demonic arrancar turned sharply and flew straight for the airborne captain-commander. He stuck both of his claws in front of him and started to spin rapidly creating a torrent of blades and claws (like Kiba's move in Naruto).

Just as he neared the defenseless Ichigo a powerful blast of reiatsu came out of nowhere and clipped Ulquiorra who stopped spinning and floated in place while Ichigo fell roughly to the ground, grunting in pain.

"I will not let you hurt my friends!" a voice exclaimed. Chad calmly walked out to the center of the field of destruction. The 8th division captain stepped forward and removed his captains robe and black undershirt revealing steel hard muscles. His body was covered in scars. Chad then activated his power. His right arm morphing into a large shield know as Right Arm of the Giant. Then his left arm changed into the Left arm of the Devil.

"How can you expect to defeat me!" Ulquiorra uncharacteristically exclaimed zooming at Chad who was caught off guard by the sheer speed.

Ichigo struggled to sit up as he tried recovering from that devastating attack. Chad was knocked back hard by the strong blow to the gut. But just as the espada was about to strike again, he brought his right arm up and defended from the blow.

"LA MUERTE!" Chad shouted smashing his left arm into the unguarded right side of Ulquiorra. A large blast of bluish-white reiatsu was released at point blank and sent the demonic arrancar flying across the field crashing into the ground.

Ichigo looked shocked at the fact that Chad had just landed a death blow on the nearly invincible espada. When the dust cleared, Ichigo was shocked to see that Ulquiorra looked fully recovered from the blast.

"You see! That didn't even hurt. Do you still think you can defeat me?" Ulquiorra said with a hint of emotion.

"No" Chad said as he flash stepped behind the last espada and attempted to hit him again. But Ulquiorra wouldn't be fooled twice. He flew high into the air avoiding the blast.

"If you know your going to lose then why are you still fighting?"

"I'm not going to lose either."

"What are you talking about?" When Chad didn't respond the flying espada started his rotation attack again and performed a deathly dive bomb on the captain. The sound of flesh tearing made Ulquiorra assume he killed the captain.

"Nope. I'm still here" Chad said shocking the arrancar who stopped rotating. He looked up and saw that both of Chad's arms were severely damaged. The arrancar was caught by surprise as Chad brought his massive arms together and started crushing him in a bear hug.

"What are you doing?" the last espada said starting to panic.

"Ichigo! Hit both of us now with your strongest attack!" Chad cried out stunning everyone.

"I can't...you'll die" Ichigo responded standing up weakly. "I won't harm my friends."

"Fool! Have you forgotten Inoue-san's powers?" Chad roared loudly. Ichigo's eyes widened.

"DO IT NOW!!!!" Chad yelled deeply.

"You can't do this to me! I am the strongest!" Ulquiorra yelled.

"You lose" Chad said confidently.

Ichigo pulled his sword back and shifted his stance. "Cutting Moon: Flying Dragon Flash!" Ichigo shouted throwing his blade at god-like speed impaling the back of Ulquiorra's head and piercing Chad's chest. The blade then exploded with black reiatsu covering them both and disintegrating the arrancar.

When the dust cleared, it revealed Chad to be laying on the ground, both of his arms gone and body severely ripped to shreds. He was dead.

"No. He won't be. We've got Orihime to fix him. And that means we can save Ishida as well" Ichigo thought happy at the fact that they would be able to revive their fallen friends. Ichigo picked up his zanpaktou and strapped it onto his back. Then he lifted both Chad's and Ishida's bodies and struggled to walk over to Orihime who looked like she was nearly done sealing the crack. When the glow disappeared, the break in dimensions was gone. The battle was over for now. Orihime collapsed to her knees from exhaustion, panting heavily.

Ichigo slowly put the bodies down and walked over to Orihime hugging her warmly. "You did great" he said softly before pulling her into a kiss.

"Isn't that cute" an amused voice said.

The two broke off and were frozen to the spot by the amount of reiatsu being released by the newcomer.

"Two captains decided to make out in the middle of a war. How amusing" the former captain Aizen Sousuke said calmly, with his trademark smirk on his face as he stood before them.

Ichigo immediately rose to his feet and drew his black blade.

"Don't bother. I know your exhausted beyond measure and besides wouldn't you want to watch this" Aizen mysteriously said.

"What are you talking about?" Ichigo asked. Aizen simply pointed out to the clearing a few miles away. Ichigo hesitated to take his eyes of the enemy leader but eventually looked out.

"No" Ichigo said unbelievingly.

Above the crowd of shinigami and hollows that were locked in combat, at least several hundred thousands of them, was another dimensional crack that stretched horizontally across the field.

"It's nearly open now and when it finally opens, thousands of Gillian will rain from the sky and kill everyone. This will be the end of the war" Aizen said smiling.

Ichigo quickly was about to flash step to warn everyone but was backhanded by the former captain and sent crashing into the ground. Orihime could barely move herself since she was so exhausted but she found the strength to crawl over to Ichigo's injured body.

"Sit tight and watch the end of the world" Aizen chuckled.

Ichigo could only watch in horror as the sky ripped apart, thousands of Gillian raining down upon the helpless shinigami forces. The miles of Gillian simply plowed into the earth, killing anyone in their way. Which unfortunately was the remainder of the shinigami forces.

Aizen then turned toward the bodies of Chad and Ishida. "I see that you two planned to revive them. But I think you know that you can only do that if their bodies are intact" Aizen smiled sadistically sticking his palm out at the bodies.

"NO!" Ichigo and Orihime screamed. Aizen fired a blast of spirit energy at the dead Ishida and Chad, completely erasing their existence.

Orihime was now crying, her tears cascading down her face. Ichigo's eyes were also overflowed with tears because he knew he couldn't do anything.

"And then there were two" Aizen said evilly stepping toward the nearly dead couple.

"You know. Nearly everyone in the real world is dead now. And since everyone in the spirit world is dead. That leaves you two to be the last to oppose me" Aizen said.

Ichigo struggled to get up but was pushed back down to the ground by Aizen's foot. Orihime tried to stand to defend Ichigo but again collapsed on top of Ichigo out of pure exhaustion.

"You……….will……….not…….win" Ichigo struggled to say as he was being crushed.

"I have already won. I won the moment I got the Hougyoku. Your pathetic attempts to defeat me were all expected and part of my plan."

"No…………….it……………can't……….be" Ichigo stammered.

"Yes it is. Now let us end this meaningless fight. Goodbye" Aizen finished unsheathing his zanpaktou and bringing it down on Ichigo and Orihime.

Ichigo closed his eyes and awaited death.

End Chapter

(A/N: Cliffy. Yay! Or Boooo! I don't know. Anyways. Thank you for reading Reader-sama. I hope this chapter was up to your standards. Please Review.

**Click the submit review button and type the word 'Hi' or 'I'm reading' and click send. I just want to know how many of you are reading. However any additional comments are welcome.**


	4. When you are given a second chance

**Second Time**

**By**

**Kage of Seireitei**

(A/N: Sorry for the wait. But the fourth chapter is now up and running and ready for reviewing. Please enjoy reader-sama.)

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach but I wish I did then cool and amazing things would happen like

Speech/Narration

_Dreams/thoughts_

_**Inner thoughts/conscience/zanpaktou spirit**_

Warning: May contain slight OOCness. I don't know. You be the judge.

Warning: Lack of reviews may result in poor story content.

(A/N: What I forgot to mention is throughout the story Ichigo and sometimes Orihime will have flashbacks of their past as shinigami of the Gotei 13 during the war with Aizen. This will happen later in the story and will hopefully explain to you the reader the development of the relationship between Ichigo and Orihime. The first flashback in chapter 2 was one where Ichigo and Orihime were already together for some time.)

**Chapter 4: When you are given a second chance**

Aizen finished unsheathing his zanpaktou and bringing it down on Ichigo and Orihime.

Ichigo closed his eyes and awaited death.

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Ichigo bolted upright in cold sweat panting heavily.

_What the hell happened? _he thought, taking a look at his surroundings. Ichigo saw a writing desk that was placed next to the bed he was laying in. Then there was a closet, posters of his favorite old rock bands hanging on the walls and that same annoying alarm clock. There was a few of his clothes laid strewn all over the floor and he finally noticed he was in his pajamas.

His eyes widened in surprise at the realization that

_This is my old room!_

Now Ichigo was really worried. Trying to comprehend what had happened was strain enough to almost cause him to collapse.

_The war! Aizen! He destroyed the world and soul society. Then why am I here in my room? Everything looks like it was ten years ago._

Then Ichigo looked at himself once again and was shocked once more to realize that

_I look like I'm fifteen again! What's going on?! Was all that a dream? The Arrancar war. It was so real. The pain was too real! There's no way all that could be a dream._

Ichigo got out of his bed and moved to the center of the room. He sat down Indian style, closed his eyes and started taking deep soothing breaths as a precursor to meditation. He was going to find out what was going.

Ommmmmmmmmm

The tone rang out as well as spirit energy began leaking out of his body. The black spirit energy circled his sitting body and formed into lashing whip shaped strips that waved around quickly. This was a way to exercise spirit energy control as well as concentration to which was the purpose of meditation. This level was that of a captain's or higher.

The deathly colored reiatsu grew larger into thick vine like strands that continued to fill the room. Suddenly, it all vanished, disappearing back into Ichigo's body.

Ichigo slowly opened his eyes and released himself from the sitting position. _It's strange. The entire world looks untouched by Aizen's evil hand. _Ichigo got up and dragged himself over to the open window. He looked out to the cool night sky pondering over the situation.

_Okay so I really am fifteen again and this really is my old room. What is that suppose to mean? _He continued to wonder staring out at the empty streets. The full moon shone brightly over Karakura, it's light stretching over the many rooftops.

"Just give me a sign what is all this?" Ichigo whispered to himself trying to get a grip on reality.

Creepily and stealthily, a lone figure stepped into the room. But not by normal means no. This woman walked through a wall. She looked around and only saw a boy. But she could sense it

"It's near" she whispered to herself.

Ichigo spun around and stumbled back in shock as he looked directly at the one person that started all this.

_Rukia!_

"Why the hell are you here?!" Ichigo exclaimed in an almost angry tone. But on the inside he was crying somewhat happily at the fact that one of his closest friends was back alive and well.

"You can see me?" Rukia asked in awe at the boy.

"Of course I can see you Rukia! What's happened to you? Don't you know who I am?" Ichigo questioned the woman shinigami.

"H-h-how-w d-di-d y-you kn-ow m-my n-na-me?" Rukia stammered in shock.

"What do you mean? I've known you for more than 10 years. How could I not know who you are? You were the one who gave me shinigami powers remember?" the captain-commander asked worriedly.

"I've never seen you before in my life! This is the first time I've ever been to the real world!" Rukia exclaimed to the confused man in boy's clothing.

Ichigo paused in surprise but then retorted "That can't be right you-

_**RAAAAHHHH**_ A hollow cried out into the night.

Rukia immediately went tense and put her hand on the hilt of her sheathed zanpaktou. Ichigo just looked as calm as ever.

"What are you getting so worked up for? By the sound of it it's only a low class hollow" Ichigo said casually.

Rukia ignored him and jumped out the open window running down the empty street to confront the hollow. Ichigo watched with rapt attention as he witnessed his once close friend disappear into the night.

_This seems so familiar. _Ichigo thought to himself. When realization hit, he nearly fell over in shock.

_This is exactly like the night I first met Rukia. _He thought to himself. Another moment later he heard a loud explosion and felt the house shake. Running out of the house, he found himself staring into the face of the first hollow he ever fought. Rukia laid a few yards away in a crumpled heap. Blood trickled down her face as she struggled to get up, but failed miserably.

With a loud cry the hollow turned to Ichigo and made a swipe at him with one of his claws.

Being the veteran shinigami, he easily dodged and jumped into the air, delivering a powerful kick straight into the middle of the mask of the hollow. The blow was reinforced with spirit energy and thus multiplied the force several times, enough to topple the house-sized hollow slightly.

Rukia's eyes began to slowly close, as she drifted between reality and the comforting escape of unconsciousness. She was completely drained and battered. She didn't even notice the orange haired boy facing down the hollow weaponless.

_I don't have anything to get out of my body so I'm stuck to fighting hand to hand. This is bad, not to mention that I suck at kido and spells. _Ichigo dived out of the way of another incoming strike and struck the hollow hard in the center of the mask once again, temporarily stunning it.

Ichigo jumped back as he dropped from the last attack to the hollow, putting some distance between his opponent. He then took the time to survey the surroundings and analyze the situation.

_I'm up against a high D-class hollow weaponless. I've got no chance at using spells and I also have to worry about an injured shinigami. _Ichigo calculated. Years of leading an army through a war forced Ichigo to learn strategy and to analyze any possible situation carefully for the safest way to victory.

It was then Ichigo realized what was suppose to happen tonight. Rukia was defeated, he was alone to protect his family. Tonight was the night he would receive his shinigami powers.

"Rukia!" Ichigo shouted to the barely awake shinigami, giving the hollow another hard kick to the side of the head.

Ichigo ran over to her, bending down and shook her lightly to wake her up. Rukia mumbled something incoherently but was brought fully back to reality after a few more shakes. She winced in pain as the injuries she sustained finally caught up with her.

"You whoever you are. Do you want to protect your family? Are you willing to do anything?" Rukia pleaded.

"Yes. I'll do anything to protect them" Ichigo followed his lines from the previous encounter carefully. Rukia nodded and pointed her zanpaktou at Ichigo and instructed him to plunge it into his heart. Ichigo grabbed the cold blade and looked at Rukia once more, calmly saying "My name's Ichigo" and plunged the sword into his chest.

A bright flash engulfed the streets, temporarily blinding Rukia who was standing next to it all. When she regained her senses she saw the orange-haired boy standing proudly with his

Normal sized zanpaktou.

_It's a good thing I took those lessons from dad on how to control the size of my zanpaktou. _Ichigo thought to him self with a little amusement at the fact that he actually learned something from his dad.

Suddenly, the hollow cried out again and began his charge. Ichigo smirked and released ungodly amounts of reiatsu. The intense power along with fatigue, finally knocked out Rukia.

The hollow seemed to hesitate a little at deciding to fight the powerful shinigami. But the amount of reiatsu that he was giving off would be enough to make him powerful enough to be a menos grande or more. Greed overcame the hollow eventually giving it the decision to attack.

A double downward slash attack with its claws would be enough to take out this shinigami the hollow thought. You could only imagine the shock on the tainted spirit's face when he realized that the only thing holding back his strongest attack was the hilt of Ichigo's half unsheathed zanpaktou.

Then with master swordsmanship and strength, Ichigo pulled out his sword and thrust the hollow back with equal force as to which it put on him. This was enough to imbalance the hollow and force him back again. This frustrated the evil spirit enough to make it charge blindly at the waiting shinigami.

Ichigo resheathed his sword and bent his knees, shifting his stance to give him more balance. Then he placed one hand on the end of his hilt while the other grasped the sheath firmly. A powerful surge of reiatsu erupted from his body but then concentrated into his hand. As the hollow neared the range of his blade Ichigo shouted

"Art of the Drawing Blade: Dragon Flash!" Ichigo using god-like speed drew his blade and swung horizontally. The strike was so fast and sudden it created a sonic boom and temporarily heated the surrounding air. The hollow disintegrated abruptly, not knowing what hit him.

With a small sigh, Ichigo put away his zanpaktou and re-entered his body. Then walking over to Rukia, picked her up and headed for the one place she would be safe.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

(Urahara shop)

The orange-haired captain-commander arrived at the Urahara shop in the dead of night. Being sure not to disturb anyone, he gently placed the unconscious Rukia in front of the door and knocked a few times, then disappeared into the night.

Footsteps could be heard from the other side of the door. A blonde haired man wearing a green jacket and striped hat opened the door.

"Ah. It seems someone has left me another baby at my doorstep to take care of" Urahara said sarcastically as he found an unconscious Rukia at his doorstep. With little care really, he dragged her into the shop and started to tend to her wounds. By this time Ichigo had made it all the way home. Little did Ichigo know that throughout the entire fight with the hollow one former 12th division captain had actually been watching with rapt attention and curiosity from the shadows only to run back to his shop to prevent from being discovered.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

(Ichigo's room)

When the fifteen year old shinigami returned to his room and collapsed onto his bed, he was forcefully pulled into his dreamscape.

Ichigo's opened his eyes and looked around to see the same skyscraper filled world, tilted on its side. This was where he could become one with his zanpaktou. His senses picked up another presence. Two of them to be more precise.

_**Ichigo. Do you know why we have brought you here? **_The ominous voice from Zangetsu, Ichigo's zanpaktou avatar, echoed. Hollow Ichigo, the other presence, just scowled deeply.

"I assume it has to do with the fact that I'm reliving everything I did over ten years ago." Ichigo replied sarcastically.

_**We wouldn't be here if it weren't for you king! **_Hollow Ichigo shouted threateningly.

"Oh yeah? How is this my fault?" Ichigo threw back.

_**This is nobody's fault. This act was the will of the gods. Back in your own time the gods sensed Aizen's imminent threat. If he succeeded in his plot to travel to the dimension of the royalty, he would have assassinated the king (god) and become the new king, remaking the universe in a way beneficial to himself only. The god's knew this and gave you one last chance to fix everything Ichigo. **_Zangetsu explained. Ichigo was hanging off of every word. This was mind boggling to say the least.

"So how do the gods expect me to FIX EVERYTHING?!"

_**They have given you the chance to do everything**_

_**A second time.**_

(**End Chapter)**

(A/N: Sorry this was so short. But I promise to update more often and post chapters at least 3,000 words in length each. Please review and send in any ideas for story plot, character design, anything to make this story more interesting for you!)


	5. Revisiting the Tragic Past

**Second Time**

**By**

**Kage of Seireitei**

(A/N: Finally I can get back to my fanfictions. After weeks of taking summer college courses and having to deal with my annoying cousins who kept dragging me from place to place and preventing me from doing fanfictions, I can now focus on my stories. Now I realize that many of you are angry at me but don't worry. I'll make it up to you. Once per day I will post a new chapter to only one of my stories. Since I have five fanfics I'm working on right now, that means Second Time will be updated every 5 days. That's a whole lot better than once every few months. So anyway….enough rambling. Enjoy Reader-sama.)

Speech/Narration

_Thoughts/Dreams_

_**Inner thoughts/conscience/zanpaktou spirit**_

**Hollow talk**

Warning: Might contain OOCness. I don't really know.

**Chapter 5: Revisiting the Tragic Past**

(Still Mindscape from last chapter)

"So how do the gods expect me to FIX EVERYTHING?!"

_**They have given you the chance to do everything**_

_**A second time.**_

"What do you mean?"

_**Can you be anymore stupid?! **_Hollow Ichigo exclaimed.

_**Think about it. Everything that happened after you woke up. Doesn't it all seem familiar. **_Zangetsu pointed out.

Ichigo pondered for a moment thinking back to his last moment with Aizen.

Flashback

Ichigo struggled to get up but was pushed back down to the ground by Aizen's foot. Orihime tried to stand to defend Ichigo but again collapsed on top of Ichigo out of pure exhaustion.

"You……….will……….not…….win" Ichigo struggled to say as he was being crushed.

"I have already won. I won the moment I got the Hougyoku. Your pathetic attempts to defeat me were all expected and part of my plan."

End Flashback

"I see now. In order to defeat Aizen, I need to make sure he doesn't get the Hougyoku and the only way to do that was to throw me back in time" Ichigo figured.

_**Took you long enough King. **_Hollow Ichigo mumbled.

_**Yes however its not as easy as it sounds. This is a one time thing. The gods cannot pull a stunt like that again therefore you are not permitted to fail this time around**_. Zangetsu explained.

"That's putting quite a lot of pressure on a (now) fifteen year old boy. I mean the fate of the entire world plus soul society depends on me now."

_**Hey don't think you're alone in this King! Don't forget we were dragged into this mess as well.**_

"Oh that's wonderful. I don't have to worry, now that my oh so lovable inner hollow is here to save the day." Ichigo said sarcastically which infuriated his alter ego.

_**Oh yeah well maybe you wouldn't be so cocky once I shove my sword up you're-**_

_**You also have additional assistance. **_Zangetsu interrupted.

"So what is it?" Ichigo curiously asked.

Before Zangetsu could answer however, Hollow Ichigo forcefully pushed Ichigo out of the mindscape, snickering all the while.

_**Did you really think that was necessary? **_Zangetsu asked his counterpart.

_**Of course. Imagine how surprised he will be when he finds out what kind of help he's getting. It'll be good for him. **_Hollow Ichigo responded with an 'innocent' smile and laugh.

Zangetsu sighed and continued to look out towards the infinite tilted landscape that was Ichigo's mind. _**I think next time we need to talk to him about **__**it.**_ Zangetsu mentioned.

Suddenly, hollow Ichigo's face grew uncharacteristically serious at the mention of 'it.' _**You're not talking about his new 'help' right? **_Hollow Ichigo asked Zangetsu who shook his head. The inner hollow frowned and grew silent. _**That is something totally different. We wouldn't want king to know about 'this' yet until the time is right.**_

_**I agree. It could very well alter the timeline too greatly which would affect our chances at victory against Aizen. **_Zangetsu said.

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(Ichigo's room)

Ichigo woke with a start only to clutch his head to prevent the oncoming headache. _Damn Hollow. I wonder what they meant about 'additional assistance'? _Ichigo temporarily pushed the thought to the back of his mind and focused on remembering what should be happening today.

"ICHIIIIIIGOOOOOO!!!!!" a loud older voice shouted. Ichigo spun around only to narrowly dodge a flying kick from his father Kurosaki Isshin who went crashing into the other side of the room.

"Dad?!" Ichigo asked surprised. Even though he knew he was in the past, Ichigo was still shocked to see so many of his friends and family alive now. The last time he saw his father wasn't under the best circumstances to say the least.

Flashback

It was a few months deep into the war. Aizen had just unleashed the biggest strike force Soul Society had ever seen in its existence, onto the real world. Caught unprepared, the few stationed shinigami in the real world were easily disposed of as the thousands of menos and adjuchas arrancar took mastery completely wiping out anything in their path. This was on a global scale where billions of plus souls and live humans were killed and mutilated.

Knowing that it was now impossible to defend Karakura let alone the entire world, Ichigo, his family and his friends were quickly evacuated to the Urahara shop where they planned to retreat to Seireitei and regroup with the remaining shinigami.

However as they prepared to leave a small army of Arrancar got word of their plan to escape and moved to intercept.

BOOM CRASH

Loud explosions were heard above the crowd of people gathered in the shop basement. Urahara and Tessai finished opening the portal to Soul Society and now they were ready to leave.

BOOM

Another explosion rocked the foundation causing a few to stumble.

"Well its time to go kiddies. I hate to be rude, but you guys gotta get outta here now" Urahara told the group.

"Huh? What do you mean? Aren't you coming with us?" Jinta asked the man who he grew to kind of respect.

"I can't do that otherwise who will defend my precious shop?" he asked as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

Jinta sweat-dropped and looked like he was about to demand a better answer before Ururu (sp?) started crying. He immediately went over to the girl and tried to calm her down. Tessai also seemed to hesitate at leaving behind the manager but a determined look plastered on the former 12-th division captain silenced the tall man. With a silent command, Tessai picked up the two kids and walked through the open gate.

Soon after, the rest of the group began to depart until all that was left was Urahara, the Kurosaki family, Yoruichi, Ishida and his dad.

**GRAAHHHH **a loud hollow shriek echoed in the basement.

CRASH

Half of the roof collapsed and out of the gaping hole, hollows and arrancar of varying classes came crawling out. All those who were equipped immediately went battle ready. The opposing forces stood across from each other and stared the other down. The combined reiatsu in the room was enough to make Yuzu pass out and Karin to collapse and almost suffocate.

Ichigo put kon in his body while he went shinigami form. The substitute shinigami commanded the mod soul to take his sisters through the portal to soul society and to warn them of a possible incoming force. Kon followed the orders and in a second disappeared into the gates with the twins.

Now that they were out of the way Ichigo and everyone wasted no time in calling out their powers.

BANKAI!

The shinigami shouted save Yoruichi. Ichigo was clothed in his black cloak and equipped with his trusty Tensa Zangetsu. Urahara's Benehime split into a blood red blade and matching shield. Yoruichi flared her reiatsu as she prepared to engage with her flash cry technique (Shunko). Both generations of Quincy went full power and already had their bows pulled back ready to strike. Finally, Kurosaki Isshin stood ready with his lightning zanpaktou.

Isshin's blade was entirely replaced by one made out of pure blue electricity that cackled madly when wielded by the veteran shinigami. But what struck Ichigo with awe was the giant golden dragon levitating right above his father's head. Its size seemed to be adjustable for not only was it able to fit in the large basement but it also had enough room to maneuver. Its deathly glare was intensified by the dragon's glowing red eyes.

Several of the unranked arrancar released their zanpaktous and prepared to battle the small but powerful opposition.

Then without warning Isshin swung his sword vertically causing the dragon to open its mouth and fire a large blast of electricity and lightning into the enemy force but not before Urahara's shield expanded automatically and protected Ichigo and company from the aftershock blast.

BOOM

The massive explosion shook the foundation and when the shield was lowered Ichigo looked to see that about all the basement and roof was disintegrated leaving the streets of the destroyed Karakura wide open for view. To say Ichigo was shocked at his father's power would be an understatement.

"Now look what happened to my shop" Urahara whined earning him a smack on the head from Yoruichi and Ishida Ryuken. The peace was short lived however as some of the arrancar who had survived the blast started to engage the group in short ranged combat.

Urahara started things off by sending out several crescent shaped shots of blood red reiatsu which the arrancar blocked easily and countered with mid level cero blasts. It was a standoff as Urahara used his blood shield to not only block the attacks but also to deflect them back at the offense.

Ishida and his father were easily dispatching the hollows that had joined the arrancar in the attack to make up for loose ends.

Yoruichi proving her title as Goddess of Flash was moving at such speeds she was leaving behind after images that practically looked solid. And each one of those after images were firing various levels of Hadou at the arrancar.

Ichigo was taking out a number of low level arrancar with his hollow form. His father was also fairing quite well, his bankai dragon (A/N: If anyone can give a name for this lightning type zanpaktou, it would be greatly appreciated. You will receive credit for the idea) was tearing right through the small enemy squadron.

"GETSUGA TESHOU-" Ichigo shouted releasing a powerful wave of black reiatsu.

"-CERO COMBO!!!" the Vizard added sending another blast of reiatsu to combine with the first creating a massive destructive force that further eliminated the remaining force.

Everyone halted combat and took a moment to catch their breath, waiting for the dust to clear.

"HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!" an evil cackle echoed startling the shinigami and quincy.

The dust settled to reveal Grimmjaw (6th), Noitora (5th), Szayel Aporro (8th), Ulquiorra (4th), and Yammy (10th) of Aizen's arrancar elite, the Espada.

"Looks like these fools are trying to escape" Noitora said, his creepy smile never disappearing.

"I think we should do something about that" Aporro added as he suddenly disappeared only to flash step behind Ishida and swing his blade. The young quincy was momentarily caught off guard but just had enough time to pull out Seele Schneider and block the attack.

However because of this he did not notice Yammy who came up behind him and gave a crushing blow to his undefended backside sending him flying into one of the standing walls.

Ichigo was shocked at seeing Ishida so easily defeated but then scowled deeply at the fact that they double teamed him.

"Now that the weakest link is gone, whose next?" Aporro taunted and smirked at seeing the fuming older Ishida.

Grimmjaw then surprised everyone by immediately releasing his zanpaktou, Pantera, and morphing into a feline predator-like form. Letting out a loud roar, he disappeared in shunpo and reappeared above Yoruichi and fired a large cero blast.

The massive shot of reiatsu was weakened slightly by the quickly casted Blood shield courtesy Urahara who then fired a blood reiatsu blast. Grimmjaw disappeared once again but this time behind the stunned Yoruichi and quickly wrapped his tail around her form.

Laughing maniacally, the seis Espada started to crush the Goddess of Flash who screamed out in pain but then was silenced as she was flung into another wall. Displaying his ferocity, the ultimate form of Grimmjaw fired another cero but from his mouth this time directly hitting the unconscious Yoruichi.

"Yoruichi!!!!" everyone yelled for they feared the worst from that fatal blow.

Urahara was immediately by her fallen form and tried to apply healing kidou but noticed that it was having no effect no matter how hard he tried.

"K-is-u-ke" Yoruichi choked a whisper as she tried to lift her head.

"Shh don't talk. You're gonna be alright" Urahara promised but knew deep down it was a lie.

If she could, Yoruichi would have rolled her eyes. "Don't lie to me. I've known you for centuries, and I can always tell what you're thinking. I just wish that I could have fought longer to help everyone." She said weakly.

"Don't leave me Yoruichi. You were the only one who stayed by my side since the beginning. You can't go now" Urahara's eyes started to tear up.

"If only you could see yourself now. Crying like a baby" she joked lightly which brought a small smile to them both.

COUGH

Yoruichi struggled to say something. "Kisuke. I want you to know before I go COUGH COUGH

Yoruichi started hacking up blood and Urahara could only watch in horror as his life long partner died in his arms.

"NO NO NO! Don't die on me!" Urahara's hat fell off as he pounded his fists into the ground. "I wanted to tell you on the anniversary of the day we first met all those decades ago, that I love you. Please. God NO! Don't leave me all alone again." Urahara was now openly crying.

"What a fool. Love and emotions only weaken a shinigami. She was a fool to have ever loved someone and that is why she was too weak to stay alive. THAT BITCH DESERVED TO DIE!!" Grimmjaw shouted as he charged the crouched form of the former 12th division captain.

"URAHARA-SAN!!" Ichigo shouted a warning. But seeing him remain motionless, Ichigo pulled the mask over his face once again and fired a powerful blast of reiatsu but scowled when Grimmjaw just dodged as if it were nothing and continued his track on the still unmoving Kisuke.

"You killed her. You killed her. You killed her." Urahara continued to mumble over and over again as he slowly stood up and turned to face Grimmjaw who stopped his charge to see what his opponent was about to do. Kisuke's eyes were shadowed by his blonde bangs but you could sense the build up of energy coming from him.

"YOU BASTARD!!! YOU KILLED YORUICHI!!!" Urahara suddenly exploded with reiatsu. His eyes turned a deathly red, the top part of his cloak was shredded by the force of spirit energy, one red stripe appeared running along one arm reaching his chest going down to his navel where it circled to form a spiral another red stripe connected from that circle and ran down the other arm.

The seal started glowing intensely as Kisuke's reiatsu seemed to continue to increase to infinity.

"NOW YOU MUST PAY THE ULTIMATE PRICE BY FACING THE ULTIMATE FORM OF MY BANKAI!" Urahara made a small cut on his finger and spread the blood across his blade. Swinging it once, the blood splashed onto Grimmjaw who stumbled back in slight surprise.

Next, Urahara pointed his zanpaktou blade down and discarded his shield. With both hands he forced his zanpaktou into the ground while shouting "BLOOD SEAL!" A red seal covered the ground where Grimmjaw was standing on.

"NOW IS WHERE YOU START SUFFERING!!" Urahara cried out in rage as he lifted his sword and prepared to strike.

Ichigo in awe gazed upon the fearsome force of his former sensei at full power and in a furious rampage.

_What did they unleash?_

**End Chapter**

(A/N: Okay looking back at the story, it looks like there is a lot of OOCness in this chapter. Oh and yay for Urahara x Yoruichi. For those of you who are confused, their relationship will be made more clear as Ichigo continues his adventure in the new timeline. Now don't worry, the next Chapter will be coming up around 7/13-7/14 and it will be the conclusion to Ichigo's rather long flashback. Thanks for reading Reader-sama and remember to submit a review on the way out.)


	6. Urahara's Revenge and a Goodbye

**Second Time**

**By**

**Kage of Seireitei**

(A/N: Here it is, just like I promised. I hope you enjoy it as much as I typed it Reader-sama. **Oh and there is a special note at the end of the chapter!!!**)

Disclaimer: I don't own anything to do with Bleach except for this fanfiction, and Isshin and Urahara's bankai.

Speech/Narration

_Thoughts/Dreams_

_**Inner thoughts/conscience/zanpakuto spirit/inner hollow**_

Warning: Might, and it probably does, contain some OOCness.

**Chapter 6: Urahara's Revenge and a Goodbye**

Last Time:

"NOW YOU MUST PAY THE ULTIMATE PRICE BY FACING THE ULTIMATE FORM OF MY BANKAI!" Urahara made a small cut on his finger and spread the blood across his blade. Swinging it once, the blood splashed onto Grimmjaw who stumbled back in slight surprise.

Next, Urahara pointed his zanpakuto blade down and discarded his shield. With both hands he forced his sword into the ground while shouting "BLOOD SEAL!" A red seal covered the ground where Grimmjaw was standing on.

"NOW IS WHERE YOU START SUFFERING!!" Urahara cried out in rage as he lifted his sword and prepared to strike.

Ichigo in awe gazed upon the fearsome force of his former sensei at full power and in a furious rampage.

_What did they unleash?_

(Still Flashback)

Grimmjaw was surprised that he could still move despite the 'blood seal' Urahara had activated. But what puzzled him the most was that no matter where he went the seal would follow him. The various designs were woven into the circular seal with such complexity that he knew anyone would have been baffled by it.

Grimmjaw jumped up and stood on top of the air not expecting the crimson red seal to follow. He frowned in annoyance when he saw the 5 meter diameter seal lying right beneath his feet in mid air.

The seis espada's eyes rested on Urahara's form. The blazing red reiatsu was very intense and would have brought down a normal arrancar to their knees.

_But I am not a normal arrancar._

"I AM ESPADA!" Grimmjaw shouted firing a powerful Cero.

Or at least he would have. When he extended his palm and concentrated reiatsu into it, he noticed that nothing happened. Then looking at his form, Grimmjaw saw that his long hair began to recede to its normal length and his body changing back to regular form.

"What the hell did you do to me?!" he shouted at the smirking shop owner.

Instead of answering Kisuke rose his blade once more, surprising everyone when he

Pierced himself!

"Has he gone mad?!!" Ichigo asked startled but then noticed that the zanpakuto that pierced the former 12th division captain's chest seemed to not cause any damage to him. Then when Ichigo shifted his eyes to Grimmjaw, they widened as he saw the wound that was suppose to be inflicted on Urahara had somehow been directed to him.

"AHHHH!" Grimmjaw screamed in pain clutching the gaping wound that appeared on his upper body.

"You like it?" Urahara asked casually as he twisted his own blade within his own body and watched as Grimmjaw suffered his pain. Then with a forceful tug, removed the blood stained zanpakuto from his chest and moved so the blade sliced harshly across his right shoulder, smirking widely as he saw the same wound appear on Grimmjaw.

"That seal you're standing on is made from my own blood which was just a few moments ago splashed onto your body." Kisuke explained making another horizontal slice across his chest.

"My true bankai allows me to absorb your reiatsu as long as you stay on that seal. And as you can see by example (Slash) you also receive the pain that was initially suppose to be inflicted onto me." Another three stab wounds suddenly appeared onto Grimmjaw who was now loosing a lot of blood. He fell to the ground in a heap of damaged mass.

"I want to watch you suffer! You took away the only thing in the world that I hold precious and now you're going to die a slow and painful death!" Kisuke was about to make the next strike when he felt a presence behind him. Spinning around quickly, he moved Benehime in front of him to block a large reiatsu filled fist aimed right at him from Yammy the diez espada.

Unseen by anyone, Ulquiorra's eyes widened slightly but returned to his normal impassive expression a second later.

Urahara's blood covered sword matched the oncoming fist and coated it with some of his crimson liquid "BLOOD SEAL!"

Yammy jumped back to get some distance between his opponent but then noticed that the same seal that was on Grimmjaw was now following him.

Kisuke quickly slashed his own legs with a deep cut using the zanpaktou. Yammy fell to the ground in tremendous pain clutching his bleeding knees.

"GAAAHHH!!" both the seis and diez espada cried out in pain.

"I'm not done with you yet. I'll make sure you two are begging for death as an escape from all the pain!" Urahara said in an almost demonic tone.

_What's wrong with him? At first I just thought that Kisuke was blinded by rage but now it seems as if he's enjoying himself. _Ichigo thought worriedly.

"It's his zanpakuto" his father suddenly spoke catching his attention. "Benehime, the 'Crimson princess' is a powerful zanpakuto. When in bankai, anyone captured in its blood seal will most surely die. However there is a big price to pay. Every time Urahara uses the ultimate form of his bankai he has to sacrifice a part of his soul." Isshin wisely explained. "Actually every time he uses it, he literally has to sacrifice half of his soul. Using it twice in one battle means that he is only one-forth as sane and logical as he started and four times more bloodthirsty."

"But what would cause him to want to make such a big sacrifice?" Ichigo asked.

"Usually intense emotions such as the loss of a loved one will help counteract some of the major consequences but using it on two opponents at a time is just taking too much of a toll on his mind." Isshin finished and continued to watch the battle.

"Haha! It looks like Grimmjaw and Yammy can't handle a little pain" Noitora smirked…….well more than usual.

"Let's go Aporro-" Noitora stopped as an arm was put in front of him blocking his way. He realized it was Ulquiorra's.

"No. I will handle him myself. You two take care of the others" Ulquiorra commanded them.

Noitora shrugged and flash stepped away with Aporro following silently.

Kurosaki Isshin suddenly felt a dark presence near him and quickly brought his blue sparkling zanpakuto up to block the oncoming double crescent axe. The clang of metal was heard and the force of reiatsu clashing was enough to make the ground crack and dust to kick up into the air.

Ryuken drew out his own Seele Schneider and blocked Aporro's attack matching him in strength. "So you're the one who beat my son in Hueco Mundo." Ryuken said.

"That weakling was your son. I must say I was pretty disappointed in him. His strategy was excellent and it would have been enough to defeat any other arrancar. But he didn't factor in the strength and wits of an Espada and in the end lost." The ocho espada was about to continue but had to jump back as a second Seele Schneider came close to lobbing off his head.

"You talk too much" was all Ryuken said then began to flash step at a speed close to Yoruichi's and started to fire quincy arrows. Each shot either missed slightly or just grazed the skin. The elder Ishida didn't give Aporro the time to counter, leaving him only room to dodge.

Ichigo put his hand on his face and dragged it across leaving behind a hollow mask. "Getsuga Tenshou!" Another crescent beam of reiatsu was fired at Noitora who dodged it rather easily. However this created a moment of distraction enough for Isshin to call upon his golden dragon.

The great behemoth shrunk down to about 4 meters in length and was thus more maneuverable. (A/N: Just as a further description, Isshin's dragon looks exactly like Zatch Bell's Bowzakerga (sp?) fourth spell.) Now with each swing of his zanpakuto, if he were to miss, his bankai dragon would attack from a different direction, either ramming into Noitora or firing massive blasts of electricity. The Noitora vs Kurosakis battle seemed to be going nowhere. The cinco espada's agility was too much for either of them to keep up with.

"AHHHHH!" more screams filled the room as Urahara continued to have his fun with Grimmjaw and Yammy. "I think I'll end it now. Prepare to die!" Kisuke shouted bringing up his zanpakuto to his own head and prepared to cleave it off when a powerful cero blast came out of nowhere. The blond shop owner barely had enough time to dodge the attack and turned to look at its source: Ulquiorra.

"Just as I thought. You dodged it. I think I have figured out your little technique." The cuatro espada said calmly.

Urahara scowled for a moment but went battle ready with Ulquiorra who was standing a ways away, just out of reach of Urahara's blade. "So you think you've figured me out do you. Then why don't you come over here and prove it."

"Cero" was the one word reply as Ulquiorra once again fired another blast of hollow reiatsu which Kisuke narrowly dodged.

"You explained to everyone a moment ago that when your opponent is covered in your blood you are able to absorb their reiatsu and also any damage inflicted upon you, would instead be directed to them." Ulquiorra said impassively.

"Yeah so?"

"Then why did you have to block Yammy's attack instead of just letting him hit you? Wouldn't the damage go straight to Grimmjaw? That's when I figured out why you need to absorb their reiatsu in the first place. I think it is so that if the opponent were strong enough to resist the torture and if they tried to attack you back, the damage would still go back to them. However, if another outside influence who was not under the curse of the blood seal were to attack you it would only harm you. That's because you use the opponent's reiatsu to heal your own wounds that were either made by yourself or the person under the blood seal."

Ulquiorra just continued as he started to unsheathe his zanpakuto. "In other words. I can attack you all I want and it would have no effect on Grimmjaw or Yammy. And as long as I stay out of range of your zanpakuto, you cannot put me under the blood seal and would be forced to either dodge or block my attacks." He fired another Cero as he finished his explanation. Urahara just deflected the blast with his zanpakuto.

"Well, what good will it do you if the only thing you can use is Cero?"

Not for long. Ulquiorra fully unsheathed his zanpakuto and released it revealing his transformed self. Two large deathly black wings sprouted from his back. Its edges turned into razor sharp blades. His fingers and hands changed into claws. His hair turned pale white and his eyes turned demonic red. A length of black colored reiatsu shot out and wrapped the bottom half of his face leaving only his eyes to view. And to top it all off, his body started to radiate an intense amount of heat. It kept building up until his entire form was surrounded in an aura of fire.

_I need to end this as quick as possible and help Kisuke. _Kurosaki Isshin thought. With a flick of his zanpakuto, the golden dragon zoomed past the stunned Noitora and wrapped itself around his form, preventing any movement. Flipping his zanpakuto around, Isshin grabbed hold of the sparkling blue blade. A bright flash and a shot of electricity flowed through him. When the flash died down, Ichigo saw his father's sword had disappeared and now Isshin's entire right arm was covered in the same blue electricity that coated his blade just a moment ago. It was a wild scene where some electrical sparks shot out of his arm randomly destroying small rocks and pebbles.

When Isshin finally opened his eyes they revealed to be two red pupils and irises. Noitora suddenly had a sinking feeling overcome him as he saw the elder Kurosaki bring his electrical filled arm back and shifting his stance into a lunging one. Then suddenly using as much flash step as possible Isshin began to dash toward the immobile cinco espada. A sound of a thousand birds chirping filled the air as Kurosaki came within a few meters of his enemy.

BOOOM

A loud explosion filled the room and dust and other ruble kicked up into the air. When it cleared, it showed Noitora with an arm sticking all the way through his chest and a shocked expression on his face. Isshin was breathing heavily from the force he used in the attack and quickly withdrew his arm from the arrancar's body and watched him fall lifelessly to the ground.

Ryuken was having trouble with Aporro. His arrows were still missing the elusive espada and even the ones that hit him still seemed to not have as much of an effect.

_This is going to reduce my life force significantly but I have no other choice. _The older Quincy thought.

Stepping it up to the next level, Ryuken withdrew 8 Seele Schneiders and fired them all at once from his bow. None of them hit.

"Haha! You've got such poor aim" the ocho espada taunted when he jumped into the air to avoid the barrage of arrows. However when he landed he was suddenly struck by the feeling of Déjà vu.

Looking around him he could no longer find Ryuken but instead found all eight Seele Scheiders forming a pentacle pattern in the ground surrounding him. _This is what that brat did in Huenco Mundo!_

Instead of a blast of energy and an explosion he expected the formation of swords to give off, Aporro saw that from the tip of each sword/arrow a beam of reiatsu extended from it going upward at an angle of about 45 degrees from the ground. Looking up from the center of the pentacle seal, Aporro found that Ryuken had flash stepped above him and had a large concentration of reiatsu built up in his bow from each of the reiatsu beams.

_The energy from these swords in this seal seems to have multiplied his power but that won't be enough to stop me. _The eight Espada thought confidently.

When the energy in Ryuken's bow stopped charging, Aporro looked around and was shocked to see eight more doppelgangers of the elder Ishida surrounding him, each with their own bow and single Seele Schneider pulled back ready to strike.

"You lose" was all the Ryuken copies said and fired their shots in perfect unison. Eight simultaneous explosions followed by a single large explosion from the top was the result. Ruble and other debris scattered the field kicking up another dust cloud.

Ichigo surveyed the damage so far. Grimmjaw and Yammy seemed to either be dead or nearly dead. Noitora was most certainly gone if the gaping hole in his chest was any indication. Aporro seemed to have disintegrated and all that was left was Ulquiorra's unleashed form. Ichigo continued and found that Ishida was still unconscious off to the side, his father was panting heavily and looked like he was about to collapse to the ground, and Ishida's dad was already on the ground knocked out or past out from over exertion.

"Demonic Flame!" Ulquiorra shouted, and watched as several blasts of intense heat erupted from the ground around Urahara who retrieved his blood shield and used it to block the attacks.

Ichigo started to sweat as he felt the temperature in the area rise significantly. The substitute shinigami could only watch Ulquiorra flap his wings and send more blasts of fire from those wings. It got worse as he drew out a spear and decided to trouble Urahara more by firing out blasts of lightning from the spear head. With the continued increase in temperature, Ichigo noticed that Urahara seemed to be weakened more and more and that his blood shield was nearly gone.

"Can't handle the heat? Blood is mostly made out of water and with these temperatures, no matter how durable your body is, the blood will evaporate and leave you without a weapon or a means of defense." When Ulquiorra finished his explanation, Urahara collapsed to the gorund panting heavily. It looked as if the temperature was finally taking its toll on him. The surrounding air was distorted due to the amount of fire and he could no longer see clearly or think clearly. Finally giving in, Kisuke fell unconscious and remained unmoving.

Ichigo saw that his father was nearly there as well. _Why isn't it affecting me? _Ichigo thought.

_**It's because you are a vizard. Our mutual friend originated from the depths of hell. So I'm sure he doesn't mind this at all. **_Zangetsu said.

_**That's right king. You're lucky you got me otherwise you'd be burnt to a crisp by now. **_Hollow Ichigo said with a smirk.

"Ichigo" the weakened voice of his father called out. Ichigo was immediately by his side trying to support him upright.

"I need you to listen to me carefully. Grab Uryuu quickly." Isshin commanded and in two seconds he was back with the unconscious younger quincy.

"Okay. Now when I tell you to, I want you and Uryuu to go through the spirit gate and when you reach Seireitei, close the gate. As soon as you leave I'm going to close this side of the gate." Ichigo's eyes widened and his face was in shock.

"What are you talking about? We're just going to run away? And even so why can't you come with us?" Ichigo asked frantically trying to prevent the tears from falling.

"The battle is over Ichigo. Ryuken is probably dead by now and I can tell that Urahara won't make it. He would want to die next to Yoruichi. And since I'm the only one conscious, that means I'm the only one who can close this side of the gate." Isshin looked up to see the Ichigo had his head cast down and was remaining silent.

"My son. Don't cry! Never cry! Turn all the sadness, anger, and any other feelings into something better. Use it to reach the next level and grow in strength my boy. I can see your future, son. You are a man now and will become a stronger warrior in the future. Strong enough to protect all those who are close to you. And one day, you will be the one to save the world."

Ichigo looked surprised at the wisdom in the words his usually goofy dad had just spoken. A sudden spike in reiatsu brought their attention back on Ulquiorra who had just finished off Urahara and Ryuken and was now approaching them.

"Go now Ichigo. Remember this always. Both your mother and I love you very much. Go!" Isshin used the last of his strength to push Ichigo carrying Uryuu into the gates and closing them right after. That was the last Ichigo ever saw of his father.

When Ichigo reached Soul Society he shouted at everyone to close the spirit gate. After the events of that day, the shock finally caught up with him and he fell to the ground unconscious. Ever since that day, he never openly cried and instead turned his emotions as a fuel to strengthen himself.

End Flashback

"Uh……Ichigo? Helloooooo?" Isshin said waving a hand in front of his son's face.

"Dad?" Ichigo questioned as if it were the strangest thing in the world.

"You spaced out for a moment there. You must have been totally stunned by my amazing acrobatics despite the fact that-" Isshin was cut off as his 15 year old son jumped up from off the floor and hugged him like he hadn't seen him in years.

"Dad! I missed you so much" Ichigo mumbled softly as he finally allowed himself to cry. Isshin stunned by this sudden display of affection just returned the hug. However, trying to get out of this awkward situation, Isshin then sent a surprising punch into Ichigo's side and kicked him in the face sending the Captain-commander into the wall.

"OW! What the hell was that for?!" Ichigo shouted rubbing his aching head.

"That was to wake you up Ichigo! Its time to eat breakfast and get ready for school!" Isshin happily declared as he dashed out of the room to avoid the angry teenager.

_Kisuke was right. Ichigo seemed to be acting strangely and his reiatsu has increased significantly from yesterday. Not only that, but it seems to be more controlled than before. _Isshin thought to himself as he ran to the kitchen to begin his 'average' day.

Isshin's Flashback to Last night a time after Ichigo defeated the hollow and left Rukia in front of Urahara's shop:

DING DONG!

The doorbell rang throughout the house. The former captain-class shinigami made his way to the door and opened it to see his old friend standing there.

"Kisuke what are you doing here this late at night?" Isshin asked.

"It's actually really early in the morning." Urahara said carelessly with a smirk before he let himself in and sat down to talk to his friend.

"Ahh well, you are aware that a few moments ago your son had just fought and defeated his first hollow, right?"

"Yes, although I'm a little disappointed he has to follow in my footsteps, I eventually realized that he probably would have anyway." Isshin said solemnly.

"Well I was taking a stroll around the city tonight and when I felt the presence of a large reiatsu I went to check it out. I found that Ichigo and a shinigami named Rukia were engaged in battle with a low level hollow. Rukia was incapacitated early in which forced Ichigo to fight the hollow alone. What intrigued me was that he was only fighting it in hand-to-hand combat empowering each of his hits with reiatsu making the impacts stronger. Then he seemed to analyze the situation and walked over to Rukia who was barely conscious. From my point of view it looked like he was using Rukia's powers to unlock his own shinigami powers instead of absorbing hers like I originally thought he would. Then Ichigo simply overpowered the hollow and defeated it easily." Urahara explained and paused to let the information sink in before continuing.

"According to my observations, Ichigo showed signs of excellent sword handling and years of battle experience."

"I find that very hard to believe" Isshin said, scratching the back of his head and stifling a yawn.

"Yes. But that isn't the most startling part. Right after the battle, I quickly made my way to my candy shop to turn in for the night. When there was a knock at my door. I opened it and found the unconscious shinigami that was with Ichigo and a blur of orange zooming away from my shop toward you're house. I knew right there it was Ichigo who left Rukia on my doorstep tonight."

"But how is that possible? I never told Ichigo about you so how did he know to bring a shinigami to what would look like a candy shop to any normal person?" Isshin was now entirely baffled.

"I don't know. But I do suggest you keep an eye on your son for the next few days as I sense he knows something we don't" Kisuke finished as he got up to leave.

"Hey Kisuke" Isshin called out to his friend one last time. "Have you heard from Yoruichi lately?" he asked innocently, although the mischievous grin on his face gave it away.

"She may have stopped by awhile ago. Why?" Urahara asked suspiciously.

"Oh nothing. It's just that with you and a woman like Yoruichi all alone together in that secluded basement of yours, it makes a man wonder what you two are really doing down there" Isshin said trying to hold back his laughter as Urahara's face turned red from embarrassment as he caught the hidden meaning in his friends words. Opting to not speak for fear of his voice cracking, Kisuke just left the house without any further discussion leaving Isshin to chuckle at his behavior.

End Flashback

**End Chapter**

(A/N: Damn. This came out one day late. I hope you're not too disappointed with this chapter. On the nest installment of Second Time, Ichigo goes to school to see old friends. And he just might meet up with the person who is going to help him this time around. It will hopefully be posted on 7-21 or 7-22. Oh and did anyone read the new bleach manga chapter? It looks like Ichigo is gonna pwn Grimmjaw hard in the next chapter.)

**Special Note: Reader-sama. I have a small request. How would you feel if I started a Naruto x Bleach crossover. I just want to know how many of you think that's a good idea. Actually in the next chapter of Second Time I will post a small teaser to this crossover. So when you review could you give me your opinion. Thank You Reader-sama.**


	7. Reliving it with a Twist

**Second Time**

**By**

**Kage of Seireitei**

(A/N: I'm sorry for the late update, but I have had no internet connection for the past few days. Originally I planned to post this on the 22nd but there were two problems. I didn't finish editing the chapter until Monday the 23rd and I lost internet connection until late tonight. But anyways Reader-sama, please read and review. Oh and the 'help' that Ichigo should be getting should be pretty obvious by the end of this chapter if it wasn't already. Some of you might even hate me for doing this or for building up the tension, I'm actually afraid that some of you will dislike the kind of help Ichigo's getting. However I did give some pretty big clues: story summary, and Chapter four author's note. O well. I hope you still enjoy the chapter.)

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach, simple as that.

Speech/Narration

_Thoughts_

**Hollow talk**

_**Zanpakuto spirits**_

**Chapter 7: Reliving it with a Twist**

After Ichigo made his way downstairs, he quickly ate breakfast and left for school barely giving his family a 'bye'. On his walk, being the captain-commander he was, started to ponder more about his situation.

_I have been granted a chance to change the past and make a better future. I guess I should figure out what to do first. _Ichigo thought going into his analysis mode.

_It seems I still have access to all of my previous shinigami powers including Zangetsu and my vizard abilities. However if I want to remain hidden from Aizen and his forces then I need to keep my strength concealed until the time is right. _Ichigo sighed as he looked ahead of him continuing to strategize. The mildly cloudy day was pleasant and something nearly foreign to the battle hardened shinigami.

_That's another problem. When is the right time to reveal myself? In the previous timeline when I fought Aizen, I went full vizard power several times allowing the enemy to see the full scope of my abilities. However, not I nor anyone else had ever witnessed Aizen use bankai even once. That puts me at a huge disadvantage right there. So if I were to act too early, Aizen could form a counter-attack. _Ichigo suddenly remembered the last time he saw Aizen. With him was an entire army of Gillian and adjuchas class arrancar, enough to outnumber the shinigami forces several times over. Ichigo shuddered at the malicious killer intent that leaked out of the former 5th division captain whenever he was around.

"HELP ME!" a voice cried out desperately. Ichigo's battle senses suddenly went active and he quickly searched around for the distressed yell. Looking across the street toward a small park, the orange haired shinigami saw a boy no older than 8 years, sprinting as fast as he could away from his predators. The small section of chain link on the kid's chest immediately identified him as a plus soul, or in hollow terms: 'food.'

Ichigo, still in human form, ran across the street, narrowly missing an incoming car and jumping over the hood of a parked one.

CRASH

Dust and other miniscule ruble kicked into the air, as three audible stomps rocked the ground like an earthquake. The trees on the opposite side of the park were suddenly demolished revealing two hollows and a large hollow (1). The short plus soul saw Ichigo standing a few meters away and ran to him thinking that the teenager would provide some protection.

**GRAAAAAAAAHHHHH **the deathly voices of the hollows echoed making a charge at the two food sources.

"Stay behind me kid!" Ichigo ordered putting one arm out in front of the boy as sort of a sign to stay back. The kid only nodded, too afraid to talk and watched as something powerful started to creep out of Ichigo.

_I'm still human, so I can't willingly turn into a shinigami and I don't get the battle license until after I go to soul society. _Ichigo thought with frustration. Here he is, a person with probably one of the highest reiatsu stocks in the world and soul society, yet he can't access it to defeat a simple hollow.

One of the hollows jumped high into the air and was prepared to pile drive Ichigo and the boy into the ground. Using his quick reflexes, Ichigo grabbed the boy and rolled out of the way, just in time to avoid the attack. The second hollow, shot out its tongue suddenly, latching onto Ichigo's arm.

"Kid! You have to get out of here now!" Ichigo shouted, struggling to release from his bonds. The kid was frozen onto the spot by fear and didn't notice that the large hollow was behind him and was about to crush him with his fist. Ichigo growled in annoyance as he found he still couldn't get lose. Suddenly, something boiled up deep inside him, it was a feeling similar to rage, but was more controlled. This new power seemed to boost his strength significantly.

Not wanting to question it, Ichigo gripped the slimy tongue firmly with both hands and pulled roughly on it. The hollow who was caught unprepared came flying at Ichigo who smirked and moved out of the way, watching as the medium sized hollow zoomed past him. However, the fifteen year old teen wasn't done yet. Still using his incredible strength, he started to spin faster and faster.

The hollow, whose tongue was still wrapped around Ichigo's arm, was now airborne spinning around and around, arms waving madly about in terror. Just as the large hollow was about to crush the kid, Ichigo spun around one last time and grinned in triumph as the hollow's purple tongue snapped, sending the corrupted spirit crashing into the larger hollow. Both fell to the ground with an earth rumbling thud.

Unknown to Ichigo, his eyes started to turn black, while his irises turned into a color between brown and gold. Ichigo had finally recognized what was happening to him. The captain-commander brought one hand to the side of his face and dragged it across, leaving behind a hollow mask. The mask had two small eye holes and a barred mouthpiece section. Red stripes also covered most of it. _Lucky me. I still can use my hollow strength and abilities._

Ichigo turned to block an incoming claw from the first hollow that attacked. Using only his bare hands, Ichigo lifted the hollow up, who was weighing in at least a metric ton, and threw him forcefully into the other downed hollows who were struggling to recover at the time. The hollow-empowered Ichigo then pointed a single finger at the three tainted sprits and began to charge reiatsu into it.

"Cero" Ichigo whispered to himself, firing a powerful blast of black and red reiatsu at the cowering hollows who disintegrated into dust leaving nothing behind but a nasty scorch mark in the ground and a few smoke streams rising out of the dirt.

With a relieved sigh, Ichigo removed his hollow mask and crushed it in his palm, deactivating his vizard powers. The boy, who Ichigo had completely forgotten, had his mouth dropped open, completely stunned at the power Ichigo just displayed.

"WOW! That was sooooo cool bro! How did you do all that?" the boy suddenly asked with a broad smile on his face, jumping up and down in place. Ichigo just smiled and rubbed the back of his head in slight embarrassment.

"Yeah how did you do that?" a feminine voice questioned from out of nowhere. Rukia stepped out from the shadows and approached the two somewhat cautiously, all the while eyeing Ichigo suspiciously.

"Oh! Rukia, it's just you. Actually, I need your help at the moment. You see, this boy just died recently and needs to be sent to soul society. So could you perform konso (2)?" Ichigo asked the shinigami.

"Actually there is a small problem with that, and it has to do with one of the things I want to talk to you about." Rukia told him. Ichigo's curiosity perked as Rukia continued. "Apparently, last night when you absorbed my reiatsu you took too much and now I can't return to shinigami form."

This completely bewildered the orange haired teen. _That's strange. I thought I only took enough to unlock my spirit energy and bring out my own shinigami powers. What could have happened?_

_**Maybe the link you made with the girl didn't close right and all the excess reiatsu leaked out of her until she was completely drained. **_Zangetsu guessed.

"So that means you are now a shinigami and have to perform all the shinigami duties, like sending plus souls to soul society." Rukia practically ordered him.

Ichigo looked up at the sky and scratched his chin with one finger before he muttered "Well, I can't actually turn into a shinigami since I'm still human. Don't you have something that could do that for me?" Ichigo asked.

"Oh! I forgot!" Rukia reached into her pocket and pulled out a dark red fingerless glove that had the picture of a skull and blue flames on it. Putting it on her right hand, Rukia then punched Ichigo's human face in order to push out his shinigami form.

"Okay. Thanks Rukia." Ichigo now withdrew his normal sized zanpakuto and brought the butt end of it onto the startled kid's forehead.

"Have a good time in Soul Society" Ichigo told the boy who grinned as he started to fade away. A lone black butterfly flew up and away into the endless blue sky.

"Now you have some explaining to do kid." Rukia said with a tone that showed she meant business. Ichigo sighed and turned to face Rukia. "I hope you'll forgive me later for this" he muttered.

"What are you-" Rukia fell to the ground unconscious, immediately after being hit by the blunt end of Ichigo's katana.

_Thankfully nobody can see me in this form. _Ichigo thought as he searched Rukia's person for something. "Here it is" he said in quiet triumph as he pulled out the shinigami memory replacer (3).

"Oww" the 13th division shinigami grunted as she slowly woke up, still lying on the gorund. Realization struck her and she quickly pointed an accusatory finger at Ichigo. "Why did you just knock me out?!" Then Rukia noticed that the orange haired shinigami was holding her memory replacer.

"Sorry Rukia" Ichigo said before he pressed the single button on the device. A small puff of smoke was released putting Rukia in a trance. Ichigo bent down to get a look at her face. Her eyes glazed over and her expression changed to a half-awake one.

"You, Rukia have told me, Ichigo all about the shinigami, hollows, and soul society the first night you met him and so whenever he mentions knowledge about those things it will not be unordinary. You also only know that I am in possession of your powers and have no knowledge that I have access to my own shinigami powers. Nod if you understand" Ichigo told her. The zombie-like Rukia nodded slowly.

"Finally, you are acting as a student at Karakura high school and are living in my closet at my house, keeping yourself hidden from my family as I continue to play the role as a shinigami with your powers." Ichigo finished. Rukia nodded once again in confirmation.

Ichigo grinned then brought his hand up and slapped Rukia across the face, immediately bringing her out of her trance. "Oww! What the hell did you do that for?!" Rukia exclaimed.

"You zoned out there for a second Rukia" Ichigo said, shrugging his shoulders. "I think we better get to school now" he suggested getting up off the ground and stretching a bit. Looking at his watch he noticed that he wasted quite a bunch of time fighting those hollows and brainwashing Rukia. _It doesn't matter really. I was suppose to arrive at school late, the day after I first became a shinigami. _Ichigo thought with a bit of indifference as he got up and started walking to school, with Rukia following him.

_I wonder why there were three hollows chasing that one kid. I hadn't really noticed until now since I was so used to fighting several enemies at once. But now that I think about it, when I first became a shinigami last time, I only fought one hollow each battle. So I suppose that seeing three, especially a large hollow at one time is unordinary. _Ichigo choose to worry about it later not noticing that someone was watching him intently.

Commercial break:

Fanfiction – Unleash your Imagination

The Bleach Anime/Manga fanfiction category is relatively small compared to others. It hasn't even reached 10,000 yet while the Naruto fanfics have totaled over 80,000 and Harry Potter has got over 300,000!! I encourage readers to either type their own Bleach fanfics or submit really helpful and positive reviews to authors so that they could get inspired to type more.

**Coming soon to a computer near you **(insert dramatic music):

(Urahara Shoten basement)

"Don't worry Inoue. We're coming for you" Ichigo muttered to himself.

"Kurosaki-san, before you go maybe I could send some help with you on your little rescue mission" Urahara told him with a secretive grin.

"What? Really?!"

**A Naruto x Bleach crossover**

(Konoha)

"Guys, I feel as though something big is about to happen" the fifteen year old blond ninja told his friends.

"You're probably just imagining it" Sakura said without much thought.

_**This feeling. I've felt this before. A long time ago. **_Kyuubi thought to himself with a slight curiosity.

…

…

…

(Urahara's shop later)

"You mean to tell me that soon after you created the Hogyoku, you had also attempted to make a defense mechanism against it should anyone take it" Ichigo summarized.

"Ah yes. But I had to find the right one. An artificial spiritual being strong enough to face off against anything that manifests from the Hogyoku. Believe me it was hard to make such a thing. It took me nine tries. The ninth one, the perfect defense against the hogyoku was entrusted to my best friend Arashi, to keep until the time was ready. The other eight were given to his brother Pein to keep watch over should the time come to use their combined forces." Urahara informed the orange-haired shinigami.

"If it will help us save Inoue then I'll take all the help I can get." Ichigo said.

"Excellent. Then you and you're friends will travel to the elemental countries, to the village of Konoha and find their leader known as the Hokage and speak to him about the situation. Tell him, his old buddy Urahara sent you." Kisuke finished.

"Alright. We better hurry then."

…

…

**Hogyoku Defense 009**

**Posting in Early August**

Now back to the story:

A blonde haired man in a green and white striped hat that overshadowed his eyes, was casually walking down the street enjoying the mildly crowded lifestyle of a regular citizen. Not an unordinary scene. However, if one were to look closely, they would notice that this man was smarter than he looked (and acted) and that he had a lot on his mind.

Urahara let out a tired sigh thinking about what he just saw happening a few moments ago.

Flashback:

Unknown to Ichigo someone was watching him during the battle with the hollows. _Kurosaki-san is rather powerful, I must admit. _Kisuke's eyes widened however, when Ichigo dragged his hand across his face leaving behind a hollow mask. _What the-? _Purely stunned, the blond shop owner could only watch as the now apparent hollow Ichigo easily disposed of the three attacking enemies. Urahara then saw Ichigo crush the hollow mask in his hand and sensed his reiatsu settle a little after that.

As if that wasn't enough to surprise the former captain, he then observed as the shinigami who he found out was named Rukia had approached Ichigo. After a small conversation, Rukia knocked out Ichigo's shinigami form and allowed the teen to perform konso on the plus soul. Although from Urahara's viewpoint, it looked as if Ichigo had done this a million times before.

Kisuke was actually tempted to step in as soon as he saw Ichigo knock out Rukia and take her memory replacer. The blond scientist listened closely and heard that Ichigo was basically telling Rukia that all of his previous behavior was due to her informing him of all things in the spirit world. Ichigo even emphasized Rukia not to act suspicious or think it was all unordinary. Urahara left as soon as he saw Ichigo finish mind wiping Rukia.

_My hypothesis was correct. This Ichigo is not the one we use to know. He seems more mature and older as if he had lived the next 20 years of his life already. Not to mention all of his knowledge of the spirit world and Seireitei seems absolute and complete. I guess I will have to continue spying on him. Or maybe I can get Tessai to do it. Yeah, that sounds like a good idea._

End Flashback

With that in mind Urahara Kisuke departed for his little 'candy shop.'

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"Kurosaki Ichigo! Why are you so late to class?!" his teacher asked as soon as he walked into the room.

"Sorry sensei, but I…..uhh……had to show our new student around school and help her with some things." Ichigo quickly lied.

"Student? What new student?"

As she said this, a girl shorter than Ichigo with black hair and violet eyes walked into the classroom. "Hello! My name is Rukia and it's a pleasure to meet you all" she said with the annoying fake polite tone and really old fashioned curtsy. Ichigo tried to ignore this and made his way to his seat, right next to his friends: Chad, Keigo, and Mizuiro.

"Oh…..well…..okay Rukia. You can take the empty seat by Kurosaki over there." The teacher said and continued with her lesson.

Ichigo took the time to look over all of his friends. First noticing Chad who was staring intently at the chalkboard, he began to wonder. _Chad seems to be all normal. His reiatsu seems to be the same as I remembered at this stage last time. I hate to admit it though, he probably won't be much help when we go to soul society. I need as much help and strength as I can get this time around. Maybe I can do something to speed along his development. I mean it would be really beneficial if he could have both the 'right arm of the giant' and 'left arm of the devil' with him when we first go to Seireitei._

Turning his gaze to Ishida, Ichigo frowned in slight realization. _Unfortunately, I don't think I can help a Quincy that much. Although from what I've heard, he was plenty strong the first time around in soul society so he should do alright. I could probably help with battle strategy and high level shunpo. _The future captain commander then sighed in frustration as he realized something else. _Ishida still hates shinigami, so it'll be a challenge to even get him on our side._

Finally, Ichigo turned around and was shocked to find Orihime staring intensely at him. When their eyes locked Ichigo gazed into her soul for any kind of connection, something to hold onto. He was surprised to see Orihime doing the same thing. When they finally realized what they were doing, they quickly diverted their eyes, trying to look at other points in the classroom, small red spots tinted on their cheeks. Ichigo tried not to think too much about it, but ever since they had confessed their feelings for each other in the previous timeline, he couldn't help but think of her differently now than what he was supposed to. In other words, instead of regarding her as a friend like he is suppose to during this point in the timeline, Ichigo is finding it hard not to think of her as his girlfriend as he had known last (4).

_Something isn't right though. I could be imagining it, but Orihime's reiatsu seems a lot bigger than what it was suppose to be now. In fact her spirit energy seems almost as close to her level in the future. Oh well, I'll think about it later._

The rest of his day at school, Ichigo couldn't help but have that annoying curious feeling nagging at him the entire time. It seemed to be strongest whenever Orihime was around. _Now that I think about it, when I look closely I can tell she seems to be hiding something when she's talking with her friends. Something big. _His curiosity only increased when he finally noticed the many secret glances Orihime was giving him when she thought he wasn't looking. He disregarded the strange behavior as a result of his own paranoid warrior senses overreacting.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

When Ichigo had finally made his way home, he decided to sit back and relax a little. Being the captain-commander, Ichigo never had time for breaks or for relaxation. It was always training or strategizing with the other captains. But, his girlfriend Orihime always stood by him and sometimes even helped him with his general duties. Right now though he was enjoying the peace and thought it a good idea to read some fanfiction.

_The song finished as someone quietly opened the door and stealthily made his way to the bedside where Jaden and Alexis were fast asleep. Resisting the urge to go 'Awwwwww' at the cute scene, Atticus bent down to the floor and pulled out the Ipod and small speakers that were hidden underneath the hospital bed. Satisfied that his work was finished, the pop star duelist stepped out just as quietly as he sneaked in._ Ichigo continued to read to himself chuckling a little.

Suddenly a cold chill that tingled down his spine, was sort of a sensory warning to Ichigo that an enemy was near. The teen closed his laptop and started sensing for any kind of spirit energy that shouldn't be there. Ichigo almost fell over when Rukia abruptly jumped out of his closet wearing his sister's pajamas. "What the hell?!" was his startled response before Rukia pulled out the strange glove and extracted Ichigo's shinigami form just in time to avoid the large hollow claw from crushing him.

The whole house rumbled and the room threatened to collapse under the force from that single strike. A dark portal was plastered on Ichigo's wall and out of it was the hollow arm that had nearly been the end for him.

**GRAAAHHHHHHH**

The portal widened slightly as the rest of the hollow emerged fully extracting itself from the void and putting its full weight on the room floor. Realization struck hard as Ichigo remembered what was suppose to happen today. _Today's the day Orihime's brother, Sora was turned into a hollow and made to attack me and his sister! What should I do? Should I kill it now or wait till it goes after Orihime? _

CRASH!

Ichigo narrowly dodged another claw and tail whip. Deciding to fight back now, Ichigo unsheathed his sword and began to counter attack. With each swipe the hollow made, Ichigo easily dodged with his unnatural agility and made a deep cut into the hollows skin. The captain-commander was hesitant in killing Sora even though he was no longer the kind loving older brother he used to be. So instead of finishing the battle in one strike, Ichigo chose to weaken it by inflicting several sword wounds.

The hollow screamed in agony as a particularly deep cut found its way onto his right arm. The Sora-hollow looked at Ichigo and was shocked to see that the shinigami wasn't even winded yet and had not a single scratch on him. So instead of risking his life by continuing the battle, the hollow opted to retreat and go for a much weaker target that had been on his mind for awhile.

_Orihime's in trouble now! _Without a word, Ichigo bolted out of his demolished room and followed the hollow whose screams echoed into the silent night. "Oi! Ichigo! Where do you think you're going?!" Rukia shouted as she tried to catch up.

"That hollow use to be Orihime's older brother, Sora before he died. And since hollows are either attracted to large reiatsu sources like mine or people who were close to them when they were alive, I figured Sora would be heading for Orihime right now. That means she's in danger" Ichigo explained as he picked up his speed with Rukia slowly starting to fall behind.

(Orihime's apartment)

"I saw you looking at Ichigo today, Orihime." Tatsuki suddenly blurted out startling the orange haired girl.

"W-what a-re y-you tr-y-ying to s-say?" she stuttered in reply. The mischievous grin on her friend's face made her regret asking at all.

"Orihime, it's no secret that you 'like like' Ichigo. Well…….maybe it's a secret to Ichigo but everyone else at school knows you fancy him a little." Tatsuki continued to point out Orihime's reactions to whenever Ichigo was around and the more she continued, the deeper the blush on Orihime's face got and the closer she got to passing out from embarrassment.

A loud screech in the darkness brought Orihime out of her act. This was enough to stun Tatsuki as she watched her normally boisterous friend go from innocent and shy to serious and battle ready. "What's wro-"

BOOM CRASH

One entire section of the wall came crashing down and Tatsuki would have been crushed if it weren't for Orihime's uncharacteristically fast reflexes. When the tomboyish girl opened her eyes, she found Orihime standing in front of her facing the large opening in the wall. But under a closer inspection, she noticed that there was an indistinctive blur outlining the hole in the wall and it looked like the shadow of something monstrous.

Tatsuki watched the blurry outline make a move that resembled a horizontal slash on Orihime who amazingly dodged with the graceful agility of a skilled, experienced fighter. Tatsuki's amazement over her friend was cut short as the monster sent a table flying right at her. Although she would never admit it, Tatsuki was too stunned to move and could only watch helplessly as the large wooden table came tumbling toward her. She closed her eyes for the impact.

But when the pain never came, she opened her eyes and was shocked once more at seeing that Orihime was protecting her with some kind of glowing triangular shield. The tension of the moment was too much for her and thus finally, the comforts of unconsciousness caught up with the black-haired Tatsuki.

(With Ichigo)

_I need to get there now! I have one more block to go. _Ichigo continued to run as fast as he could without using flash step as that would reveal a little too much about his abilities to Rukia. _Almost there! Go faster! _"Ahhhh!!!!" Ichigo shouted as he kicked up dust because of the speed he was running. Finally seeing her apartment, Ichigo jumped high into the air and landed on the second floor in one leap.

"Santen Kesshun!" Ichigo heard Orihime's voice cry out. His heart nearly stopped as he watched in surprise, Orihime holding back the hollow's attack. But the thing that surprised him was that she was using her hairpin fairy powers to defend from the attack.

"O-Ori-hime" Ichigo barely managed to get out in his shocked state. The sound of her name made her lose focus as Orihime turned to see Ichigo standing there, mouth agape. The sight of the orange haired shinigami was enough of a distraction for the Sora-hollow to make another charge at the girl.

Quickly jumping into action, Ichigo withdrew the sealed form of Zangetsu and moved to block the ramming attack. The amount of reiatsu Ichigo forced in the defense move combined with the weakened state of the hollow was enough to rebound the charge and send Sora flying out into the streets. An earth rumbling thud was heard just outside the apartment a moment later.

Orihime finally snapped out of her alarmed state and swiftly made her way outside by her brother's downed form. Ichigo followed silently, still a little suspicious of Orihime after what just happened. Two whispered words was all Ichigo heard from Orihime as she knelt beside the hollow with her hands in front of her.

"Soten Kisshun." Two fairies, Ayame and Shuno appeared next to Orihime and began to heal the injuries on the Sora-hollow. As this was happening, the red in the hollows eyes seemed to fade away as did the rage in its soul. The mask even started to disintegrate and the serpent like body that was the hollow's, began to return to human form.

When the process was finished Orihime called back her fairies and watched idly as the human plus soul form of her dead older brother, began to awaken. "Orihime?" Sora asked in a weak voice. Ichigo finally noticed that Orihime was crying this entire time but now he saw her smile and nod her head. "I'm sorry" Sora whispered kindly.

"No brother. I'm the one who should be sorry. I prayed for you every day since you died, thinking that you were always watching over me. But then I started to feel guilty that I was the reason you couldn't move on to the afterlife. So I thought that by showing you I was happy and had friends, you would feel content and move on. I didn't now it would make you sad." Orihime was now sobbing uncontrollably.

Unnoticed by anyone, Rukia finally caught up and walked up to the gathered group. _What's this? Is that Orihime's brother? But he's just a plus soul! What happened to his hollow form?! It's impossible to revert back to a plus once you've turned into a hollow. _Rukia was now curious as to what happened here and how it happened but opted to stay quite for now.

"Don't cry Orihime. I'm not sad anymore. And I'm truly glad that you have friends and a happy life. Knowing this, I think I'm ready to move on." Sora said looking toward the silent Ichigo.

Taking this as his cue, the teen shinigami brought the hilt of the sword up to Sora's forehead and lightly bumped it, performing the soul burial. But just before Sora disappeared he heard his younger sister say "Have a good day brother" and then smiled as she saw a lone black butterfly fly upwards toward the heavens.

Now that all the tensions were over, Orihime suddenly felt weak. Her knees buckled and she collapsed to the ground. Or she would have had Ichigo not rushed to her side to catch her. There she was cradled in his arms, and before she finally passed out she heard Ichigo whisper soft enough so that only she could hear.

"We need to talk."

**End Chapter**

(A/N: There's the end of the chapter. Here are the story notes:

(1) A large hollow is a hollow that is on a level between normal and menos grande.

(2) konso (also known as soul burial) is the ritual used by shinigami's to send plus souls to soul society

(3) The memory replacer was used by Rukia previously to alter the memories of anyone who ever got the chance to see a shinigami or hollow and was still living. I'm not sure if the user can actually use it to brainwash the person or just replace a memory with a totally random one. So for purposes of this fanfic, the memory replacer is sort of like brainwashing.

(4) I decided instead of filling this fanfiction with so many flashbacks to explain the previous timeline, I'm just going to do the easier thing and make a Prequel to Second Time as soon as I'm done with this fanfic. The Prequel will focus mostly on the previous timeline and the developing relationship between Ichigo and Orihime through the tough times during Aizen's war. This fanfic: Second Time will still be Ichigo x Orihime but it will be a somewhat already developed relationship between the two. There will still be enough fluff for those of you who are Ichihime fans, and for those who aren't there isn't that much compared to the overall plotline. I plan to make this story as good as possible and I hope more people will read it once the anime catches up with where the manga is now.

End story notes

Anyways Reader-sama. How did you like the chapter? How about the new Naruto x Bleach crossover I'm planning? Just submit a review and I will be greatly appreciated. The next update should be around 7/31 or 8/1. So review. Thanks. Signing out: Kage of Seireitei.)


	8. Chad's Spiritual Encounter

**Second Time**

**By**

**Kage of Seireitei**

**Chapter 8: Chad's Spiritual Encounter**

Ichigo sighed in relief as he carried Orihime, bridal style, back to her damaged apartment, knowing that she was safe now. With a quick leap, Ichigo was back on the second floor and soon was tucking the orange haired beauty into bed. The captain-commander watched Orihime sigh blissfully, and with a small smile, quietly walked out of the room and closed the bedroom door behind him.

"What was that all about?" Rukia suddenly asked, startling Ichigo enough for him to fall over. Ichigo watched the curious expression on his friend turn quickly to suspicion.

"R-R-Rukia! Uh……well…..um….." Ichigo tried to find a way to explain everything but the continued lack of answer turned Rukia's suspicion to slightly annoyed and in a few seconds, he could tell she was gonna go out in uncontrollable rage. _Oh crap. Is it Rukia's time of the month or something?! _Ichigo thought to himself. _Do faux bodies even have…?_

"ICHIGO!" Rukia shouted as it looked like she was about to strangle the poor kid.

"Well……you see……oh forget this!" Ichigo exclaimed in a frustrated panic as he once again brought the blunt end of his zanpakuto crashing into the side of Rukia's head knocking her out cold. _I better be a bit more careful whenever Rukia is around otherwise I'm gonna end up giving her brain damage from all the times I have to steal her memory replacer. _Ichigo thought, as he found said device and used it once again on Rukia to remove any further suspicion.

Ichigo felt a little guilty at the sight of the mangled living room and so decided to clean up a little bit. Not much just getting rid of some post battle debris and picking up some overturned tables. This is when Ichigo found Tatsuki unconscious on the floor where Ichigo knew from experience wasn't the best place to wake up from, decided to move Tatsuki to the guest room. A quick check over and Ichigo was done.

"Time to go" Ichigo muttered to himself as he lifted the unconscious Rukia to carry her piggy back all the way home. With one last glance at the damaged apartment, the teen shinigami disappeared in flash step. _I hope I can talk to Orihime tomorrow._

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(Elsewhere)

A construction site, a regular hang out spot for Yasutora Sado also known as 'Chad' and his two friends. Tonight the gargantuan juggernaut of a kid, Chad was discussing with his friends about certain rumors pertaining to an odd bird.

"That bird is cursed I tell you. I heard that whoever owns that bird dies in a horrible accident." One of them said. Chad didn't respond to the tall tale but instead looked at the caged Cockatiel with a feeling of pity.

"So do you guys want it?"

"Hell no! I don't wanna die!" the other kid exclaimed.

Chad still remained silent as he gazed at the bird who was looking at him curiously and with a contemplating look.

"Nice to meet you. My name's Shibata Yuuichi. What's yours?" the Cockatiel asked in a soft kind voice, completely stunning the teens, except Chad of course who started talking back to the bird as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

_It really is cursed! _The first teen thought in surprise. _What the hell? Chad's talkin to it!_

"My name's Yasutora Sado. I'm fifteen years old and I'm in high school." He said in a deep but not intimidating voice. Chad's friends watched with their mouths hanging open and large sweatdrops behind their heads as the giant continued to converse with the miniscule bird.

Unknown to the group somebody or something was watching them hungrily. **Kukukukuku. Easy prey.**

CRASH

While the teens were discussing who should take care of it they heard the crash and looked up to see a large I-beam above them falling off its resting place. All but one of the high school students panicked. Acting on his reflexes alone Chad firmly placed his feet on the ground and brought his arms up into the air just in time to catch the construction piece. The force was so great the ground cracked slightly and scattered a few pebbles.

Picking their jaws up off the ground, the two friends immediately questioned Chad's state of health. Whether mental or physical, was debatable. Chad just ignored his concerned comrades and instead asked if they were alright. The bird known as Shibata looked grateful at his new found friend but still felt a pang of guilt when he saw just how much the giant was bleeding.

"Are you alright Sado-san?" Shibata asked worriedly as Chad dropped the large piece of metal with a resounding thud and struggled to keep his footing.

"I'm fine" Chad said trying to sound convincing. His friends obviously didn't believe him and offered to take him to the hospital or the nearby Kurosaki clinic. But when he kept refusing they decided to help him and his new pet bird home. Not another word was said the entire way there.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

(Next Day-Orihime's house)

Within the damaged confines of a small apartment, one orange-haired beauty was stirring in her sleep.

"……………Ichi-kun…….." Orihime mumbled as she was slowly brought into the world of consciousness.

The first thing Orihime noticed was the fact that it hurt like hell to even move. _What happened last night? _She said one of Matsumoto's patented quotes while trying to move her arms and legs.

"Ayame…….Shun'o…….Soten Kisshun" Orihime whispered. The two fairies manifested from her hairclips and started to work on the various injuries, mostly painful sores.

When Orihime started to get some feeling back in her limbs she attempted to move out of her cozy bed. Fortunately after about a minute, Orihime felt almost normal. She had at least enough strength as a normal human at the moment and so unconsciously decided to get prepared for the day.

However as Orihime opened the door to the living room of her apartment and looked at the slightly ruffled up remains of furniture, all the memories of the previous night came rushing back.

_Now I know why I'm so exhausted. I had to use the stronger form of Soten Kisshun to revert my brother from hollow to a plus soul _(1). The future fourth-division captain quietly checked up on a sleeping Tatsuki and made sure her friend was fine. Smiling in relief, the orange-haired girl silently closed the door and decided to make breakfast for the both of them. Poor Tatsuki.

_I guess I need to talk to Ichi-kun as soon as possible. I hope he's not angry at me. _Orihime thought with a small frown. _I couldn't just let him do this alone. I promised to be by his side_.

"It's looks like I need more ingredients." Orihime whispered to herself when she opened the nearly empty cabinet and refrigerator. _I'll just leave a note for Tatsuki if she wakes up. _She decided as she prepared to leave for the supermarket.

About an hour later, with groceries in hand, Orihime was making her way down the deserted street back to her apartment. Humming happily to a song she had heard playing in a music store that she passed on the way home.

"Oreta awai tsubasa…..kimi wa sukoshi aosugiru sora ni tsukareta dake sa….(2)" she sung softly. _Your fragile folded wings are just too tired from the pure blue sky._ (3)_ Hmm. I wonder what's that suppose to mean?_

Out of the corner of her eye, Orihime noticed a big tanned man wearing a Hawaiian style shirt carrying a birdcage. What got her attention, being the medic she was, were the numerous injuries the tall man had and the poorly self applied first aid bandages covering a large portion of his body.

However in about one second, three things happened that put Orihime in what could be called 'battle mode'. First the big man was crossing the street without looking where he was going. Second, there was a distinct maniacal laughter that could only belong to a hollow. And finally, there was a driverless-out-of-control truck speeding down the street on a collision course with the distracted man.

"WATCH OUT!!!" she screamed but it was too late. There was no way he would be able to move out of the way. That left only one option.

"SANTEN KESSHUN!!" the captain class shinigami shouted commanding her fairies into triangle formation. The reiatsu enforced shield barely stretched far enough across the street to block the truck.

CRASH

The deafening sound exploded throughout the street. A blast of wind and dust spread outwards from the force of the impact. The truck's windows shattered, the hubcaps fell off, and due to the sudden stop, the back of the truck was pushed into the front effectively crushing the vehicle.

"Are you all right?" Orihime called out to the man who was frozen in place from shock. From his point of view it looked as if the truck had hit a thin invisible wall just centimeters from his face. Even some of the debris from the crash was scattered along the wall. Not one bit of glass flew past his current position.

Without waiting for a response, Orihime ran up to the solid still man only to realize it wasn't a man but a teen about her age and not just any teen, one of her closest friends, at least in the previous timeline.

"Sado-kun, are you okay?" she asked, concern in her voice. The tall Mexican heritage man barely gave a nod as he stared down in surprise at the young woman who apparently was checking him for any possible injuries…….well more than he already had.

"Inoue-san, right? You're one of my classmates from school?" he questioned in a calm voice. Sado noticed that Orihime seemed to have barely heard him and only nodded in response while she whispered something that sounded like "So….ten….Kissh….un." Almost immediately after he heard Orihime speak, his left arm didn't hurt anymore and his whole back seemed to feel better. Sado didn't see anything but surely felt a whole lot better and couldn't explain why. It was them brought to his attention that just before that truck was going to hit him, Inoue shouted out what sounded like a spell and suddenly the truck stopped as if smashing into a wall.

Curious he was, it was then he noticed something strange about the orange-haired girl's hairpins. They were giving off some kind of strange aura and it seemed to radiate directly from Orihime herself. He was about to ask her when both teens heard a small voice.

"Wow! Onee-chan that was cool! You stopped the truck all by yourself!" the small bird known as Shibata from within Sado's birdcage, praised the girl, stunning both of the high schoolers.

Orihime looked down at the bird and the bird looked up at her. A few moments of tense silence between the two until the cockatiel innocently tilted its head to one side. Half a second later.

"KAWAII!!!" Inoue shouted loudly effectively deafening poor Sado's ears who cringed. "What a cute little bird you have there Sado-kun. What's its name?"

"My name is Shibata Yuuichi" it spoke once again eliciting another round of high-pitched squeals. A few minutes later when the shock of the incident wore off from all three of them, we find Orihime walking back to her apartment with Sado tagging along, and Shibata going wherever Sado goes.

Orihime had insisted to invite Sado over to her house for a couple of reasons. First, would be to check to make sure Sado was all right and to finish healing those injuries he had from before. The other reason was to spend some time with one of her nakama who she had missed so much. And then there was a secret hidden motive. To observe Sado's reiatsu level and see if she could speed up the power development along.

Orihime may pretend to act childish, but she wasn't stupid. She knew that a battle with Aizen was inevitable and when it did come, she wanted to be sure none of her nakama would lose their lives and instead be able to hold their own against anyone they may face in the near future.

Chad had no idea how he was forced into this situation. Maybe it was at the urging of the talking cockatiel or maybe the girl whom he only knew as an acquaintance before was nice enough to offer breakfast and it would have been rude to refuse. Oh poor, poor Chad.

Little did either of them know that there was something watching them intensely from a hidden location. **I'm surprised that boy was able to survive this long. He's got a body made of steel to have withstood this much damage. **The hollow continued to watch the strange trio of girl, giant, and bird. **That girl smells so delicious though. So much reiatsu. It would nearly be enough for me to become a Gillian after I devour it all. **Smiling with greed, the hollow decided to make his move.

Shibata was currently having a conversation with Orihime discussing several things. Eventually Orihime deduced that the bird was actually a trapped spirit. The spirit of a little boy it looks like. This whole situation though seemed to nag something at the back of her mind. A distant memory.

However before she could ponder further, a cold chill raced up her spine. That was a sign to Orihime that a hollow was near. A rare ability for shinigami it was, to be able to detect the presence of a hollow before it even appeared. So Orihime had years of practice to utilize this ability up to the point where she could accurately pinpoint the position of a hollow hiding nearly all of its reiatsu.

The future captain looked around frantically for any signs of hostility. That was when she found a small leech-like creature hanging onto a nearby wall, only a meter away. The next thing she knew a high pitched screech noise sounded from somewhere and before Orihime could do anything the leech creature exploded powerfully, demolishing a section of the wall and sending large chunks of it in all directions.

Out of the dust appeared a large hollow and about thirty more of those leech things all standing at the feet of the hollow. **Kukukukuku. It's mealtime! **The hollow cackled a laugh as the creatures quickly pounced on the girl.

SCREEEEECH!

The explosion was enough to shake the ground furiously and create a massive crater. Sado watched in horror as the dust cleared and revealed no remains of Inoue Orihime. The shock and suddenness of the situation snapped something inside of his body.

**Hahaha! Well that was easy. I admit it was boring but at least, I'll be feasting today.**

SMASH!

The enhanced strength of Sado's fist came crashing into the unsuspecting hollow who flew back into a telephone pole which cracked under pressure and completely broke off. Before the hollow could recover however, the enraged Chad used his immense power to lift the broken telephone pole and swing upward knocking into its jaw and sending it flying into the air. Finally, Chad used what was left of his human strength to hurl the large telephone pole projectile at the airborne hollow, striking it hard in the chest and plowing it hard into the ground.

Cracks in the sidewalk were visible from the hollow's meeting with the ground. **D-damn it. This kid can see me and probably hear me. You caught me by surprise brat but now its time I get serious.**

Chad watched as some more leeches sprouted out of the ground and attempted to jump out at him. Trying in vain to deflect and dodge, Chad found himself in a tough situation. He was now pinned to the ground by a bunch of highly explosive creatures.

"Sado-san are you okay?" the caged cockatiel asked worriedly. Chad honestly didn't know, but didn't want to concern the bird and only grunted in response.

"This is all my fault. Because of me that girl Orihime is gone and now you're hurt." It said guiltily. Chad was a little surprised and confused at this new information.

**Kukukuku. You're finished brat. **The hollow taunted. It was then it noticed the familiar caged bird. **Ahhh yes. I can't forget about the other brat can I. It was all thanks to little Shibata hear that I was able to kill that girl. **The hollow said with what would have assumed to be pride.

At the doubtful look of his large captive, the hollow continued to explain. **You see, when I was alive, I was a serial killer. I got pretty famous back then and killed many. Until one night when I found this kid and his mother. It was suppose to be an easy slaughter. The mother bled nicely but before she died she pushed me off the top floor balcony and I fell to my demise. However, I soon found myself in the form of a hollow, a tainted evil spirit. I thought it necessary to continue on my killing spree. However I wanted to have a little fun first. This boy here was the soul survivor the night I died so I made a deal with him. **The hollow said pointing to the caged Shibata. **I said that if he could stay in that form for three months, I would bring his mother back to life. Ha! As if I could ever do something like that! **The bird seemed shocked, saddened, and guilty all at the same time. The normally calm Chad, was feeling a deep rage build within him.

**Then for the next three months, I killed anyone who came in contact with the bird and it would all seem like an accident. Every time I killed someone he would complain and cry about how he doesn't want me to kill anyone. Then I'd say that I need to so I can bring your mother back. Then the brat would go right back to being happy. Well now that I've collected enough reiatsu, after I kill you and absorb that girl's spirit energy, I can finally rid of that annoying brat.**

"AHHHH!!!!" Chad suddenly exploded in reiatsu, knocking the leeches off of him. A fierce expression dawned his face. The level of his spirit energy continued to rise startling the bird and the hollow. "You have preyed on the innocent and have toyed with a child's mind. That's unforgiveable." To the surprise of everyone, Chad's right arm started to change and morph. Black and red streaks of color raced down the length of his right arm which increased in musculature.

"Take this!" Chad sent an even more powerful crushing blow into the startled hollow's chest, an explosion of focused blue reiatsu emitted from the thrown fist blasting the hollow into the air and seriously injuring it but still leaving it alive.

Both opponents were breathing heavily and by the looks of it only one of them had the strength to go on. _That last attack took a lot out of me. I think I can only do one more of those. _Sado thought desperately.

**GRAHHH! I'll kill you! **The murderous hollow howled out from his high up position. Sticking out both of its palms the hollow fired about fifty explosive leeches on a direct course for the exhausted giant and the caged bird.

_Gotta make this count. _Chad thought, concentrating all of his power into his right fist until the bright blue glow was too intense to look at directly. "Ahh!!!" the giant screamed releasing the torrent of spirit energy just as the leeches came within exploding range. The blast was angled in the same line as the leeches so each one was vaporized and simultaneously the offending hollow was struck directly again and fell crashing into the ground.

Unfortunately that attack had also drained Chad all of his still developing reiatsu, so he too collapsed to the ground unmoving. The force of the explosions was enough to send the birdcage flying into a wall hard. Chad, barely conscious, was able to see that Shibata was okay but had knocked his head on the side of the cage and was now out cold with swirls in his eyes.

**TEME!!!! Don't think I'm through yet! **The hollow shouted. Sado looked up horrified at the still standing form of his opponent, however barely. The serial killer-hollow was severely weakened from Chad's last attack. He was missing his entire right arm and torso, and a fraction of his mask had disintegrated in the blast. Chad finally thinking it was hopeless, succumbed to the dark void of unconsciousness, joining his bird-like friend.

**AHHHH!!!!!! **The hollow screamed firing more leeches out of its still functional left arm deciding to end this battle.

Only to be surprised when they would bounce off and detonate on some kind of golden barrier protecting the sleeping Chad and Shibata. **Nani?! **In a bright flash of light, a lone orange-haired figure manifested in the middle of the street.

Inoue Orihime had just reappeared in front of the shocked hollow's eyes who was soul witness to this new more powerful form of that seemingly harmless girl. Orihime was no longer dressed in the style or clothes she was in when she was walking home. Now she wore a black kimono with a white haori coat overlaying it and a white obi sash (4).

**W-What are you? **The question was laced with fear.

The girl barely gave a smile and replied cheerfully, but with a hidden deep rage. "Fourth division captain of the Gotei 13, Orihime Inoue."

**Did you say captain?! **The now revealed shinigami did not make a single motion letting only the soft breeze push against her haori her face now an expression of seriousness. The hollow started to get real tense. He was up against a captain-class shinigami if the new reiatsu levels he was detecting were accurate. There was no way he could win. That left only one option.

**I'm getting the hell out of here! **The hollow spread both its wings and was soon airborne once again. Turning in the opposite direction, the hollow had flown about a meter before coming face to face with the fourth-division captain. **Such incredible speed!**

"You're crimes in life cannot be forgiven and you will suffer the consequences……." Orihime left that statement hanging as she charged a powerful white electrical energy in both her hands. The clouds in the sky began to gather and darken at an alarming rate. The reiatsu pressure intensified.

"Byakurai Taijutsu" Inoue whispered as her hands began to cackle with electricity. **I'm not going to die!!! **The hollow screamed firing another fifty exploding leeches. With a swift and gracefulness of a dancer, Orihime maneuvered around the projectiles striking a few with her palms. The spiritual electricity coating her hands deactivated their explosive ability. The hollow had no time to be surprised as he soon realized that the girl's palm was a few centimeters from his face.

**W-Wait!!**

"Byakurai"

A great explosion of bright white lightning erupted out of the extended palm, completely vaporizing the hollow. His tortured screams fell on deaf ears as he was forcefully dragged into the tall gates of Hell.

Orihime landed on the ground with a soundless tap. Sighing, she pushed some strands of hair out of her eyes and fully sealed her powers, reverting back to her normally clothed human form. The aura of reiatsu surrounding the area began to die down, so Inoue made her way to Chad's unconscious body and used some minor healing techniques. Just the beginning of what she learned from her mentor Unohana-taichou in the previous timeline.

"Ugh…." Chad began to awaken from his slumber. Suddenly, he jumped up and looked alert and ready for battle.

"Sado-kun calm down or your injuries….."

"Where is it?! Where did that thing go?!" he questioned, looking around frantically for any signs of hostility.

"It's okay Sado-kun, you defeated it. Now calm down or your wounds will reopen." She said almost harshly, stunning the juggernaut enough for him to be restrained once again. Then recognition struck him with full force.

"Inoue-san, you're alive?!"

"Sure, I am. I'm still here aren't I?" Orihime answered.

Looking at the small crater where Chad had last saw Orihime before fighting the hollow, Sado decided to answer the inevitable question. "How did you survive?"

Orihime looked stunned for a moment at the question but then made up a viable answer. "I just discovered that I have my own powers now as well. Just like your 'Right arm of the Giant'." Actually what had happened was that Orihime had dodged the hollow's attack, unconsciously.

Being trained to fight in the war and learning to adapt to changing battle situations, high level shinigami would sometimes develop a technique matching or surpassing flash step to a point where shunpo would automatically engage if the user was in danger. Weather they were aware of it or not. That is what had happened to Orihime. Moving faster than lightning, the captain-level shinigami was able to maneuver out of the way.

_Right arm of the Giant? I guess that's what I'll call it then. _Chad thought. "Wait, then what are your powers and what was that thing anyway?"

Orihime was about to answer when she suddenly felt a very familiar reiatsu signature. Turning around, Orihime came face to face with her fellow time traveler.

"I'll explain everything Chad. But first we need to take care of the spirit." Ichigo said looking toward the bird with pity.

_That poor kid had to suffer without his mom for months. At least he can join her in soul society. _Ichigo thought, withdrawing the smaller, sealed form of zangetsu and performing konso on the kid.

But, before the spirit departed for Soul Society, Chad said his goodbyes and promised that if they ever saw each other again, they would play together and run around all of soul society.

After the bright light of the soul burial dimmed away, Ichigo began to explain to Chad about hollows, the role of shinigami, and briefly about how Ichigo got his shinigami powers and why Chad and Orihime also have strange abilities.

"So, its because we've been hanging around you so much, that some of your enormous amount of spirit energy was absorbed into our bodies and we developed these powers." Chad checked to see if he got everything. Ichigo nodded and everything was clear. Chad looked at Orihime and saw her face filled with tension like she was trying to hold something back. Then he looked at Ichigo and saw the same thing.

Chad had a feeling they wanted to talk to each other privately, so he said his goodbyes and made his way home. As soon as Chad was out of sight, the two time travelers looked at each other hesitantly before Orihime suddenly jumped into Ichigo's arms who pulled her up in a deep kiss that took their breath away.

A few moments later, the couple pulled apart, breathing heavily. "Ichi-kun………I thought…….when Aizen…" Orihime tried to say while panting.

"It's okay…….I'm glad……you're alive." Ichigo replied with a genuine smile. Words weren't needed at the moment they decided, opting to kiss once more. Soft tender lips pressed together, tongues danced, light caresses and wandering of limbs. Before this got out of control, Ichigo lifted Orihime up bridal style and picked up the discarded groceries, then flash stepped away to where he left his body.

**End Chapter**

In the last chapter, Orihime used her reality cancelling abilities to revert Sora back to plus soul form.

Lyrics from Bleach opening song in Japanese

Lyrics translated to English

Uniform of the Gotei 13 captains

(A/N: Sorry this took so long. But several things happened. My laptop CRASHED literally a day after I posted chapter 7. Then by the time it was fixed, school had started, and I had like no time to update, being in the MSE and IB programs. And for those of you who don't know what those are……..they are like the hardest possible things anyone could participate in school. In fact there are like only 50 students in the state that are both MSE and IB. cry But anyways I'm sure you're gonna hate this chapter. So please be easy on me. I just barely had time to do this. Sorry for the errors and stuff.)

(P.S: For those who have been reading this fanfic since the beginning. AHA! I WAS RIGHT! Noitorra was the fifth espada! I knew it! I knew it! For those who have no idea what I'm talking about, I had originally pegged Noitorra to be the fifth espada in the second chapter which was posted long before the manga chapter came out revealing his rank. My next prediction is that Halibel will be the current third espada and will soon battle with Nell the former 3rd espada.)


	9. AN and a new chapter

Important Author's Note:

Sorry for the delay, but I decided to redo the story. The first chapter is rewritten and there are already a bunch of plot changes. But its still Ichihime and its still a time travel fanfic. For those of you who are disappointed well, sorry but I looked back at my previous chapters and saw how much they sucked. So I rewrote the story.

GO TO MY AUTHOR'S PAGE AND CLICK THE STORY TITLED:

Second Time Revised Edition


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